About six months ago I did a survey of the readership of my two GeneExpression blogs (before moving to Discover). The N was around 600. You can view the raw frequency results here. One of the issues which I was curious about: did the disciplinary background of readers have any major correlates with responses? So I created three categories from the data on disciplines: -Science -Social Science -Not Science Social science had its own section, but for science I amalgamated those who studies Math, Engineering, Natural Science and Medicine. The balance were under "Not science."
Not ScienceSocial ScienceNatural Science
How long have been reading Gene Expression(s) regularly?
No more than 4 weeks555
1 to 6 months121314
6 months to 12 months121513
1 to 2 years202222
2 to 4 years332622
More than 4 years181920
What is your highest educational level attained?
Did not complete secondary school100
Secondary school000
Some post-secondary education, incomplete511
Post secondary education, but not a university degree holder421
University degree holder383337
Masters degree202220
Professional graduate degree (law, medicine, etc.)201211
Graduate degree (science, humanities, etc.)132930
What is your subjective socioeconomic status?
Lower class533
Lower middle class15159
Middle class424347
Upper middle class343135
Upper class475
What is your belief about the nature of God?
I believe in theistic God(s)12611
I believe in deistic God(s)885
I believe in a Higher Power556
I am skeptical of the existence of God(s)242322
I do not believe in the existence of God(s)515657
What is your racial identity?
European ancestry (white)758482
East Asian352
South Asian317
Southeast Asian111
African ancestry (black)221
Middle Eastern212
Mixed654
Other931
What is your sex?
Male848687
Female151413
Other101
Which of the following characterizes your general politics:
Far Left561
Left131518
Center Left161821
Center454
Center Right9611
Right131612
Far Right363
Libertarian212225
Other1663
Do you consider yourself sympathetic to transhumanism?
No222512
Yes323340
No idea292829
Don't care171420
Have you ever had sexual intercourse?
Yes889488
No10411
?221
Personality type in terms of shyness you are:
Very extroverted052
Extroverted7126
Somewhat extroverted202118
Somewhat introverted383641
Introverted282625
Very Introverted658
Attitudes toward abortion:
Support abortion rights on demand414144
Support abortion rights, but with some constraints393941
Support ban on abortion, but with some exceptions14155
Support ban on abortion6510
Have you taken calculus?
Yes738197
No27193
Race is:
A social construct, not a biological reality101110
A biological reality, not a social construct171818
Both a social construct and a biological reality747172
IQ measures:
Something real which we refer to as intelligence616358
Ability to take a particular type of test181827
Who knows?212015
What is the heritability of IQ among groups in the West which are middle class and above?
Less than 0.3634
0.3 to 0.5202122
0.5 to 0.7445443
More than 0.7292131
Turns out there's no big difference, except for in calculus. A particular type of person must be attracted to the substance and style of this weblog (I suspect the biggest substantive difference between the readership and myself is that I'm on the extroverted side). I'll probably post a survey for tomorrow, mostly to see how much Discover has changed my readership. But periodically I'll also look at the results for previous surveys like this. Note: Some of the results do not add to 100% because I rounded.
