Paul Thompson wrote, speaking of "caustic jerks":
> Herman Rubin wrote:
> >
> > You may be making a Type 3 error. Remember, the null
> > hypothesis is always false.
> >
> > Those who voted for Bush are more likely to be literate,
>
> This is the kind of offensive, stupid comment that belongs on political boards.
>
> Anyone who makes such comments without documentation, without evidence
> is simply not a scientist. He simply is not even an educated person.
Rubin's is not a very controversial statement. I would think that most readers
of this newsgroup not only agree with it, but have access to documentation of it.
Here's a table from the 1996 General Social Survey of American adults that shows
that partisan Democrats score lower on a short (10 word) vocabulary test, on the
average, than partisan Republicans.
NUMBER WORDS CORRECT IN VOCABULARY TEST
POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION Mean N Std Dev Grouped Median Std. Error of Mean
STRONG DEMOCRAT 5.83 263 2.22 5.81 .14
NOT STR DEMOCRAT 6.02 365 2.01 6.00 .11
IND,NEAR DEM 6.17 231 2.22 6.14 .15
INDEPENDENT 5.71 284 2.08 5.72 .12
IND,NEAR REP 6.41 163 1.99 6.47 .16
NOT STR REPUBLICAN 6.05 337 1.98 6.08 .11
STRONG REPUBLICAN 6.23 206 2.12 6.38 .15
Total 6.03 1849 2.09
6.05 .05
I apologize for the sloppy formatting, but I'm sure readers of this non-political
newsgroup are numerate enough to figure out what is going on. Oh yes, P = .008.
> I have at this point lost all respect for someone who could make such offensive
> comments. Rubin has the reputation of being a caustic jerk, but this really
> takes the cake.
--
*************************************************
`o^o' * Neil W. Henry ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) *
-<:>- * Virginia Commonwealth University *
_/ \_ * Richmond VA 23284-2014 *
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