So that reader survey that I mentioned last week is done. I’m mostly interested in seeing the changes since I’ve moved to Discover from ScienceBlogs. I assume that the standard 85% male readership has shifted somewhat toward more balance, but I don’t know. Many of the basic demographic questions (sex, race, age, etc.) are the same, but I swapped out ones I usually ask with others. At this point I’m rather sure that a huge proportion of the readers of this weblog are introverted nerds, so I’m not going to ask about personality type and what not. I took some reader suggestions, so there are questions about what you read, as well what your somatotype is. I converted the political question to a 0 to 10 scale that I wouldn’t have to recode if I did a scatter plot, and also so that it’s a little more fine-grained.
As usual all questions are optional. I timed it and should take you 5 minutes max, though I guess I can’t account for lack of clarity in prose. If you don’t see your exact response, but want to respond, I think it is totally fine to give the closest equivalent.
To take the survey, click here. After you’re done it’ll bring you back to this website. You can review results here.
Below are percentage breakdowns of last winter’s survey by sex.
| Female | Male | ||
| How long have been reading Gene Expression(s) regularly? | |||
| No more than 4 weeks | 9 | 3 | |
| 1 to 6 months | 19 | 12 | |
| 6 months to 12 months | 14 | 12 | |
| 1 to 2 years | 16 | 26 | |
| 2 to 4 years | 29 | 27 | |
| More than 4 years | 13 | 21 | |
| What is your highest educational level attained? | |||
| Did not complete secondary school | 1 | 1 | |
| Secondary school | 0 | 1 | |
| Some post-secondary education, incomplete | 6 | 8 | |
| Post secondary education, but not a university degree holder | 9 | 8 | |
| University degree holder | 32 | 31 | |
| Masters degree | 18 | 18 | |
| Professional graduate degree (law, medicine, etc.) | 6 | 12 | |
| Graduate degree (science, humanities, etc.) | 28 | 21 | |
| What is your subjective socioeconomic status? | |||
| Lower class | 1 | 5 | |
| Lower middle class | 15 | 14 | |
| Middle class | 54 | 43 | |
| Upper middle class | 28 | 33 | |
| Upper class | 1 | 5 | |
| What is your belief about the nature of God? | |||
| I believe in theistic God(s) | 14 | 10 | |
| I believe in deistic God(s) | 6 | 5 | |
| I believe in a Higher Power | 8 | 6 | |
| I am skeptical of the existence of God(s) | 14 | 24 | |
| I do not believe in the existence of God(s) | 58 | 55 | |
| What is your racial identity? | |||
| European ancestry (white) | 70 | 85 | |
| East Asian | 2 | 2 | |
| South Asian | 4 | 4 | |
| Southeast Asian | 3 | 1 | |
| African ancestry (black) | 1 | 1 | |
| Middle Eastern | 4 | 2 | |
| Mixed | 8 | 4 | |
| Other | 8 | 2 | |
| Which of the following characterizes your general politics: | |||
| Far Left | 4 | 3 | |
| Left | 30 | 12 | |
| Center Left | 19 | 18 | |
| Center | 10 | 5 | |
| Center Right | 11 | 11 | |
| Right | 6 | 16 | |
| Far Right | 1 | 4 | |
| Libertarian | 16 | 25 | |
| Other | 1 | 5 | |
| Do you consider yourself sympathetic to transhumanism? | |||
| No | 28 | 38 | |
| Yes | 19 | 16 | |
| No idea | 18 | 19 | |
| Don’t care | 35 | 27 | |
| Have you ever had sexual intercourse? | |||
| Yes | 91 | 85 | |
| No | 6 | 13 | |
| ? | 3 | 1 | |
| Personality type in terms of shyness you are: | |||
| Very extroverted | 0 | 1 | |
| Extroverted | 6 | 7 | |
| Somewhat extroverted | 15 | 18 | |
| Somewhat introverted | 48 | 39 | |
| Introverted | 28 | 27 | |
| Very Introverted | 3 | 8 | |
| Attitudes toward abortion: | |||
| Support abortion rights on demand | 49 | 40 | |
| Support abortion rights, but with some constraints | 37 | 43 | |
| Support ban on abortion, but with some exceptions | 6 | 13 | |
| Support ban on abortion | 8 | 4 | |
| Have you taken calculus? | |||
| Yes | 82 | 82 | |
| No | 18 | 18 | |
| Race is: | |||
| A social construct, not a biological reality | 18 | 9 | |
| A biological reality, not a social construct | 9 | 20 | |
| Both a social construct and a biological reality | 73 | 72 | |
| IQ measures: | |||
| Something real which we refer to as intelligence | 32 | 67 | |
| Ability to take a particular type of test | 44 | 19 | |
| Who knows? | 24 | 14 | |
| What is the heritability of IQ among groups in the West which are middle class and above? | |||
| Less than 0.3 | 6 | 4 | |
| 0.3 to 0.5 | 23 | 19 | |
| 0.5 to 0.7 | 43 | 47 | |
| More than 0.7 | 29 | 30 | |