Some graphs make me sad

[andrewducker]

From.

Comments

[simont]

I wonder on what grounds the rest of the countries in the world are excluded from this graph. Perhaps because these are the countries in which the "do you believe in evolution" survey has happened? But it doesn't say that, which leaves me with just the sneaking suspicion that the graph might turn out to look a lot more haphazard with a full set of data, and that the data points shown might have been cherry-picked to give a misleading impression.

[andrewhickey.info]

The summary on Science's website of the original paper (all that's accessible without payment) says "The acceptance of evolution is lower in the United States than in Japan or Europe, largely because of widespread fundamentalism and the politicization of science in the United States." (That's the whole summary).

I'm pretty sure that means that any cherry-picking has gone on, if at all, in the original article. (The big ones I'd be interested in are Canada, Australia and New Zealand)

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Good grief, only 40% of the American public believe in evolution?!!

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Watch and weep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBmhM0R2A0

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

So much for my hope that it was still a minority.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

At least someone who said "yes they should" won.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Probably took quite a lot of guts to stand up and say that in that environment.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

I read once, and I can't remember where, that there is a direct correlation between declining belief in heaven, and the presence of retirement benefits.

[andrewducker]

I am completely unshocked.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Just a thought: but if you did this state by state for the USA I wonder if it would show the same curve?

[andrewducker]

Looks like there are large differences:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/21147

[fjm.livejournal.com]

New York!!! That is so sad.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

it's city versus suburban/rural, red districts vs blue

um that means tory versus um... not tory... commie?

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

Turkey is an outlier too, the line should go through Bulgaria instead.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

i thought that

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

I don't know why they chose the formula they did ( y = A(1-B/x) ), unless they really wanted to keep Turkey in the graph.

A straight line would have been easier...

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

or, you know, a big oval, which is what it is.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Yup. Discard Turkey *and* the USA as outliers and you've got a straight line with a fair-but-explainable bit of noise.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

a line implies movement though, and I think such an implication is incorrect. There's nothing making countries more rich and scientific.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

True. Might as well have no line at all, and simply point out that more science correlates with more money in all but one case - and that one case is 0.1% of it's population away from being somwhere to the left of Turkey.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

yes we are definitely exceptional in many wonderful and horrible ways

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I wonder how an analysis by income *parity* would come out? The US has a lot of very poor people you know, and rather fewer very rich ones.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

interesting idea!

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

not to mention that the mega-rich tend to be religious right. Or claim to be, anyway.

given that 80% of US money is in the top few % of people, that's a massive factor

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

they just worship themselves

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Austria? Switzerland?

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested to know the figures for India and China since they're glaring omissions from the sample.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

With the exception of Japan and the USA, the data points are all for Europe and Europe-adjacent countries.

(Canada also would buck the line, I suspect. We've got tons of ignorant people *and* a decent GDP.)

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

as are the rest of 'The Americas'...

[heron61.livejournal.com]

It's even sadder if you live here. This is a nation where I consider around 20-25% of the population to be dangerously delusional (IOW religious extremism and religious bigotry are central to their worldview, and they also tend to believe oddities like the US president is a Muslim who was born in Kenya). I rather suspect those numbers are considerably lower in other developed nations.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

As someone born in Latvia, I have to say :-(