Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pew Poll- 6% of Scientists are Republicans.

A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that the GOP is alienating scientists to a startling degree.

Only six percent of America's scientists identify themselves as Republicans; fifty-five percent call themselves Democrats. By comparison, 23 percent of the overall public considers itself Republican, while 35 percent say they're Democrats.

The ideological discrepancies were similar. Nine percent of scientists said they were "conservative" while 52 percent described themselves as "liberal," and 14 percent "very liberal." The corresponding figures for the general public were 37, 20 and 5 percent.

Among the general public, moderates and independents ranked higher than any party or ideology. But among scientists, there were considerably more Democrats (55%) than independents (32%) and Republicans (6%) put together. There were also more liberals (52%) than moderates (35%) and conservatives (9%) combined.

"These results were not a complete surprise," said Scott Keeter, Director of Survey Research at Pew, in an interview with the Huffington Post. He said they can be mostly attributed to "the difference between Democratic and Republican parties with respect to issues."

The wide ideological and partisan gap among scientists may have been exacerbated by the Bush administration, which often disputed broad scientific consensus on topics such as evolution and climate change.

Keeter acknowledged this factor, but said that "many of these disputes probably predate the Bush administration," noting that scientists have favored liberal views in numerous past studies.

Religion also plays a role. Republicans tend to promote the centrality of religion more often than Democrats, and while 95 percent of the public said they believe in "God" or "a higher power," only 51 percent of scientists claimed either.

"Many Republicans, especially the Evangelical wing of the party, are skeptical of evolution, and have argued for the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in school," said Keeter.

The results could merely be a reflection of how scientists see the world, rather than of partisan loyalties. In a series of questions posed, the study found that the answers of scientists were consistently more in line with liberal viewpoints than those of the general public.

"The Republican Party has a number of leaders within it who have challenged the accuracy of scientific findings on issues such as climate change, evolution and stem cell research," Keeter told the Huffington Post.

"It suggests that scientists who are Republicans might feel some dissonance from the party's position on some things that are important to them. And while there are Republicans in the scientist sample, there are really not that many," he said.

Imagine the work Faux News has to do to find someone to talk about that global warming thing.
The other scientist haven't figured out why the number is so high.

Uh, so what? What percent of the population are Drs? What percent of them believe in global warming? What percent of gays suck. Evidenty the result of that poll would really excite you.

Seems to me that scientists are alienating the Republican party,only 6% are Republican. The scientists need to be more tolerant of differing views.

I am thinking they vote democrat because they are on the government teat.

My official made up statistic is that 95% or those that identify themselves as "scientists" are government employees or douche bags.

The rest identify themselves as chemists, engineers, climatologists, hydrologists, etc.

YUP!! Very few vote outside the trough.


Try teachers.

Excellent observation.

Bullsh*t meter in the red. Many like you and the other posters are in denial . Scientists polled have Phd's.

im more science oriented than most.....but most are on the .gov dole and have been since day one....most the ones i know in the private sector are conservative, public dole are liberal.....where their paycheck comes from weights in heavily....

Bullsh*t again. What you are saying 94% of scientist are government employees?

I kept reading "The Huffington Post" throughout the article. You can be assured of unbiased and no-spin reporting for sure.

nope saying its a poll which is easy to phug with and saying a hell of alot of scientists are funded by .gov directly or indirectly.....just cause the paycheck isnt signed .gov doesnt mean thats not where they get their money

You mean like Profs at State Colleges and Universities?

Administrators in State and Federal Ag, wildlife, water, ecology, and other assorted Departments surely cannot be what you are talking about either...

And getting returns from those folks instead of the private sector "scientists" must be pretty easy to organize...

LHW, I'm saying 97 % of BLACK cokmie dimocraps agree witu you. Are you saying that makes you right?

My time in Pasadena with Cal Tech professors and graduate students who had passed their orals. And BTW they were from from all over the globe. There was not one who was right wing or conservative, not one was a government employee. The theory only "government scientist" are center/or left is complete hogwash.

Scientists always have their hands out for MY money to conduct their pet projects. They live and thrive by government grants.

Why wouldn't the welfare-scientist vote democrat?

Tell us about your time sucking liberal cock?

Your BS meter may have been designed by a scientist rather than an engineer and made by a scientist rather than a skilled machinist or technician. For openers, almost all who call themselves "scientists" have to have a Ph.D because it is the union card for that type - self selecting breed. Whom do you know with a B.S. or M.S. that truly labels him/herself a "scientist"? They need that "terminal degree" to get onto the roster of all of the government funded "research" projects" where almost all of them collect their salaries - unless they are on the roster at some university - and many of those are supported by government grants. If they lose their grant funding, they lose their jobs. Have you ever worked at a high level in an industry that depends on scientific effort and outcomes? Almost all of the Ph.D folks in those settings live by a title other than "scientist". P.S. - and don't fool yourself by thinking "hard science" either - folks with Ph.Ds in anthropology, psychology, sociology, geography, political science, etc., etc., etc. often consider, and call, themselves "scientists".