About

Based on data computed by The Audacious Epigone. They are from GSS. Not meant as anything but a preliminary analysis, see the blogpost.

Start

library(pacman)
p_load(kirkegaard, readr, dplyr)
simple = read_csv("data/simple.csv") %>% 
  mutate(
    Rep_adv = `Rep%` - `Dem%`
  ) %>% 
  arrange(Rep_adv)
## Parsed with column specification:
## cols(
##   Item = col_character(),
##   `Rep%` = col_double(),
##   `Dem%` = col_double(),
##   Field = col_character()
## )
#sort Item by Rep_adv
simple$Item = simple$Item %>% factor %>% fct_reorder(x = simple$Rep_adv)

Mean advantage

GG_denhist(simple, "Rep_adv")
## `stat_bin()` using `bins = 30`. Pick better value with `binwidth`.

mean(simple$Rep_adv)
## [1] 2.65

Plots

#simple sorted plot
simple %>% 
  ggplot(aes(Rep_adv, Item)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_vline(xintercept = 0, linetype = "dashed") +
  theme_bw()

GG_save("figs/by_item.png")

#by field
simple %>% 
  plyr::ddply("Field", function(x) {
    data.frame(
      Field = x$Field[1],
      item_count = nrow(x),
      Rep_adv = mean(x$Rep_adv)
    )
  }) %>% 
  arrange(Rep_adv) %>% 
  mutate(
    Field = fct_reorder(Field, Rep_adv)
  ) %>% 
  ggplot(aes(Rep_adv, Field)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_vline(xintercept = 0, linetype = "dashed") +
  theme_bw()

GG_save("figs/by_field.png")

Data

#print(simple, n = Inf)
pander::pander(simple %>% as.data.frame)
Item Rep% Dem% Field Rep_adv
Humans evolved from other animals 39.9 57.8 Biology -17.9
The north pole is on a sheet of ice (2006, 2010) 57.6 67.7 Climate science -10.1
The use of coal and oil contributes to the greenhouse effect (2000) 68.5 74.8 Climate science -6.3
The greenhouse effect is caused by a hole in the earth’s atmosphere (2000) 38.7 42.7 Climate science -4
Continental drift has and continues to occur 86.5 90.2 Geology -3.7
Demonstrates a basic understanding of nanotechnology (2006, 2008, 2010) 86.5 88.4 Nano science -1.9
Demonstrates a modestly more advanced understanding of nanotechnology (2006, 2008, 2010) 77.4 79.3 Nano science -1.9
Genetics play a substantial role in determining personality (2004) 25.1 26 Behavioral genetics -0.9
Polar ice caps have shrunk over the last 25 years (2006, 2010) 93.4 91.8 Climate science 1.6
Electrons are smaller than atoms 70.7 68.7 Physics 2
Understands the need for control groups in testing 82.3 80.3 General 2
The earth’s core is very hot 95.3 93.3 Geology 2
Not all artificial chemicals cause cancer (2000) 53.9 51.5 Medicine 2.4
It is not perpetually dark at the south pole (2006, 2010) 89 86.2 Geology 2.8
It takes the earth one year to rotate around the sun 78 74.1 Astronomy 3.9
Demonstrates a modestly more advanced understanding of probability 80.6 76 Math 4.6
The earth revolves around the sun 81.1 76.4 Astronomy 4.7
Demonstrates a basic understanding of probability 92.5 86.1 Math 6.4
Father, not mother, determines a child’s sex 76.2 69.4 Genetics 6.8
Not all radioactivity is fatal to humans (2000) 76 67.2 Physics 8.8
Understands that non-GMO tomatoes still have genetic material (2010) 73.4 64.6 Genetics 8.8
Not all radioactivity is man-made 87.3 77 Physics 10.3
Respondent does not refuse to eat genetically modified foods (2006) 72.6 61.4 Genetics 11.2
Astrology is not scientific 72.7 61.3 Astronomy 11.4
Lasers are not made by condensing sound waves 73.2 61.1 Physics 12.1
Antibiotics do not kill viruses 65 51.2 Medicine 13.8