In my post earlier in the week I mentioned the possible relationship between attitudes toward evolution and the causes and likelihood of Global Warming. I haven’t seen any survey data myself relating the two, so naturally I wanted to poke into the General Social Survey. Two variables of interest showed up, both from 2006:
1) GWSCI, “Understanding of causes of Global Warming by environmental scientists.” A five-point scale, from understanding “Very well” (1) to “Not at all” (5).
2) SCIAGRGW, “Extent of agreement among environmental scientists.” A five-point scale, from “Near complete agreement” (1) to “No agreement at all” (5).
I paired these up against EVOLVED, which is a simple True vs. False answer in relation the question as to whether “Human beings developed from animals.”
Tables below.
Each row in the following set of tables adds up to 100%. In other words in the first row 55% of Democrats think that environmental scientists understand the cause of global warming “Very well.”
| Environmental scientists understand cause of global warming | |||||
| Very well | Not at all | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Democrat | 55 | 24 | 14 | 4 | 3 |
| Independent | 44 | 21 | 28 | 2 | 5 |
| Republican | 39 | 21 | 29 | 6 | 5 |
| Liberal | 56 | 24 | 13 | 5 | 3 |
| Moderate | 51 | 21 | 25 | 1 | 2 |
| Conservative | 33 | 25 | 27 | 8 | 7 |
| Evolution True | 53 | 26 | 16 | 2 | 4 |
| Evolution False | 43 | 18 | 28 | 6 | 6 |
| Extent of agreement on global warming among environmental scientists | |||||
| Near complete agreement | No agreement at all | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Democrat | 17 | 36 | 36 | 5 | 6 |
| Independent | 19 | 27 | 38 | 8 | 8 |
| Republican | 11 | 26 | 41 | 14 | 8 |
| Liberal | 17 | 38 | 31 | 8 | 7 |
| Moderate | 13 | 29 | 44 | 7 | 7 |
| Conservative | 14 | 27 | 39 | 13 | 7 |
| Evolution True | 16 | 36 | 32 | 9 | 6 |
| Evolution False | 17 | 29 | 39 | 9 | 7 |
Now we’ll switch the columns, but again, the rows add up to 100%. So of those who think that environmental scientists understand the cause of global warming “Very well,” 55% accept that humans developed from animals.
| Evolution is | ||
| TRUE | FALSE | |
| Environmental scientists understand cause of global warming | ||
| Very well | 55 | 45 |
| 2 | 58 | 42 |
| 3 | 36 | 64 |
| 4 | 28 | 72 |
| Not at all | 38 | 62 |
| Evolution is | ||
| TRUE | FALSE | |
| Extent of agreement on global warming among environmental scientists | ||
| Near complete agreement | 50 | 48 |
| 2 | 56 | 44 |
| 3 | 46 | 54 |
| 4 | 52 | 48 |
| No agreement at all | 47 | 54 |
Finally, a set of regressions. Since the ones for Global Warming have a 1 to 5 scale I just used a linear regression, while for evolution I used logistic regression (since it’s a dichotomous response).
| GWSCI | ||
| Beta | p | |
| POLVIEWS | 0.158 | 0.01 |
| PARTYID | 0.087 | 0.144 |
| AGE | 0.053 | 0.293 |
| GOD | 0.114 | 0.058 |
| BIBLE | -0.028 | 0.654 |
| WORDSUM | -0.082 | 0.152 |
| DEGREE | -0.021 | 0.748 |
| SEI | -0.116 | 0.069 |
| R-squared = 0.118 | ||
| SCIAGRGW | ||
| Beta | p | |
| POLVIEWS | 0.085 | 0.185 |
| PARTYID | 0.062 | 0.325 |
| AGE | 0.032 | 0.557 |
| GOD | 0.035 | 0.558 |
| BIBLE | 0.095 | 0.156 |
| WORDSUM | 0.031 | 0.609 |
| DEGREE | -0.103 | 0.132 |
| SEI | -0.138 | 0.043 |
| R-squared = 0.053 | ||
| EVOLVED | ||
| B | p | |
| POLVIEWS | 0.158 | 0.003 |
| PARTYID | 0.075 | 0.03 |
| AGE | 0.016 | 0 |
| GOD | 0.549 | 0 |
| BIBLE | -1.144 | 0 |
| WORDSUM | -0.03 | 0.402 |
| DEGREE | -0.091 | 0.174 |
| SEI | -0.008 | 0.04 |
| Pseudo R-squared = 0.255 | ||
Weird things happen when I try and relate the Global Warming variables to evolution. Since I gave you the names of the variables I invite you to replicate. I see some relationship in the 2006 GSS, but not a strong one. The dependence of attitudes toward evolution on religious views is pretty direct as expected. Not as clear with the Global Warming issues.