Does Ignorance Influence Voting Preferences?

[RageSk8]

The poll also showed a correlation between people's ignorance and their political affiliation. Among those who believed WMD had been found in Iraq, 72 per cent said they would vote to re-elect Mr Bush in November and 23 per cent said they supported his Democratic challenger, John Kerry. Among those who knew that no WMD had been found,74 per cent supported Mr Kerry and 23 per cent backed the President.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=514681

Democrats would benefit from a huge media campaign that focused only on correcting common misconceptions.

 

[hughes johnson]

Ignorance is when you can't even punch holes through a card when you vote.

Democrats and republicans alike would benefit most from re-electing George W. Bush for another four glorious years.

 

[RageSk8]

Democrats and republicans alike would benefit most from re-electing George W. Bush for another four glorious years.

hahahahahahahahahahaha

But seriously, I am only making a single, undeniable point: Kerry would benefit if more Americans knew the facts about Iraq's WMD capabilities and (nonexistent) operational ties with al-Qa'ida. There is a strong correlation between ignorance on these issues and support for Bush.

 

[Dissident Dan]

I'm willing to bet that those most who have the most positive views of any particular politicians are more ignorant than those who view them with suspicion. The more than you know, the less (or at least the lower the percentage of total knowledge) that there is to like.

I also think that conservatives and right-wingers (I am not equating the two terms here, fyi), especially the of the social type (rather than just with regards to taxes and other financial matters), tend to be more ignorant of the world around them, content with and believing in the prejudices that their own particular surroundings imbue them with, instead of invoking their critical abilities as often as they should. I'm referring to the people that still refer to environmentalists as "hippies" and refer to liberals as "Commies" or support whatever military action their government makes wholeheartedly (at least, as long as it's a Republican).

 

[kat]

I'm *Holding my nose* because there's something fishy smelling about this. I'd find it credible only after I had a chance to see the actual poll questions and results.

 

[Zero]

I'm watching this closely...I don't think it speaks to "ignorance" so much as getting your news from biased right-wing sources. Can you be blamed if you don't know you are being lied to?

 

[RageSk8]

Here you go kat: http://www.pipa.org/
There are two pdf files at the bottom of the page giving exactly what you want.

 

[GENIERE]

Although the journalist freely plagiarized from the report, he injected the term “ignorance”. The term was not used in the report. The report attributes Kay’s statement and those from other experts to be similar. That was not the case. The report does not refer to the financial interest of Clarke and Blix in book sales. A private company that has a leftist agenda and Canadian affiliations did the actual polling.

There is a high correlation with being a college graduate and voting republican.

 

[Dissident Dan]

There is a high correlation with being a college graduate and voting republican.

Yes, a negative correlation.

 

[kat]

Ragesk8- Thanks!

 

[RageSk8]

There is a high correlation with being a college graduate and voting republican.

I don't think there is "high correlation", but I'll grant a statisical trend. Here is a http://transformer.cs.caltech.edu/archives/000029.html link that shows party affiliation (and the degree of affiliation) by educational level. By this survey, for voters with bachelor degrees Republicans have a slight but statistically relevant edge on Democrats. However, Democrats have a bigger edge over Republicans in voters with graduate level education. So, by the data, Democrats have more support in the polar ends of the educational spectrum and Republicans have more support in the middle. This is interesting.

 

[GENIERE]

Nice post Rage and good link.

I don't think there is "high correlation", but I'll grant a statisical trend. Here is a link link that shows party affiliation (and the degree of affiliation) by educational level. By this survey, for voters with bachelor degrees Republicans have a slight but statistically relevant edge on Democrats. However, Democrats have a bigger edge over Republicans in voters with graduate level education. So, by the data, Democrats have more support in the polar ends of the educational spectrum and Republicans have more support in the middle. This is interesting.

The Census Bureau supports your link. Data from 1996 election:

Grade school only --- 82% voted dem. vs. 18% rep.
High school --- 60% voted dem. vs. 40% rep.
College + --- 49% voted dem. vs. 51% rep.

That’s about as much as the CB broke it down.

It would be interesting to know if those holding graduate degrees and vote democratic are primarily from academia.

 

[RageSk8]

It would be interesting to know if those holding graduate degrees and vote democratic are primarily from academia.

I doubt it, but I am not sure. Generally in statistics like these "graduate" includes masters, phd's, mba's, law degrees, Md's, etc. The majority of people with phd's (even in something like English) do not end up working in academia (because the market is very competitive and the economic pay out is comparatively small).

 

[Dissident Dan]

In the most recent government class that I took, we had a book called American Government: Using MicroCase ExplorIt (with CD-ROM). It had a huge collection of data from at least the GSS, if not other surveys as well. The book discussed a "liberalizing effect" of education, and the statistics backed it up. According to the measures used, higher education increased liberality, and there was a positive correlation between the amount of time spent in college and the liberality of the populations. Positions on several key issues were used as indicators, and I think that party affiliation used, too.

 

[schwarzchildradius]

Marginally more marginal Republicans with Bachelor's degrees (1077R vs 995 D)
More Democrats with Master's degrees (466 cs 373)

 

[RageSk8]

IQ by State:
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~gcharter/iq.txt

 

[selfAdjoint]

This site has been discussed on other forums. The author doesn't give any source for his numbers except to state they are based on Raven A.P.M. Given the amount of junk IQ stuff that exists on the web, I am leary.

 

[hughes johnson]

I see that New York is ranked 4th on the list. With the high percentage of blacks and hispanics in New York State it is nice to see that there has been a major improvement. The president's educational programs are starting to pay off!