I hate to be the one, but what is presented here (I don't have access to the article nor the data), doesn't necessarily support either versions of what this polls says. First, we don't know how balanced the different categories are. My experience with using the categories (very conservative to very liberal) is that few people self-ident…
I hate to be the one, but what is presented here (I don't have access to the article nor the data), doesn't necessarily support either versions of what this polls says. First, we don't know how balanced the different categories are. My experience with using the categories (very conservative to very liberal) is that few people self-identify on the extremes. Usually you need another set of questions to affix where people fit on that scale. So, you could have only a few dozen people in each extreme category which makes it unstable to say the least. It is also relative to where you live. For myself, when I lived in Florida I was considered liberal, now in New Hampshire I am considered moderate. I also doubt that political identification is the best scale to use. I would have had a series of geography questions first, like city, suburb, rural, etc. Also we know there have been different sets of mandates by state and even by county, so that would have been important information to know. Basically, this is a poll that tells us nothing useful. It also lacks context and has some weird results that beg for explanation like why do conservatives and moderates reverse course in late March on in-person school? Or, why are moderates trending more likely to be concerned about Covid personal risk? I would humbly suggest one take a critical view of social science research as one would do with hard sciences. FYI..............if I never read anything from the NYTimes for the rest of my life, I would be happy.
I hate to be the one, but what is presented here (I don't have access to the article nor the data), doesn't necessarily support either versions of what this polls says. First, we don't know how balanced the different categories are. My experience with using the categories (very conservative to very liberal) is that few people self-identify on the extremes. Usually you need another set of questions to affix where people fit on that scale. So, you could have only a few dozen people in each extreme category which makes it unstable to say the least. It is also relative to where you live. For myself, when I lived in Florida I was considered liberal, now in New Hampshire I am considered moderate. I also doubt that political identification is the best scale to use. I would have had a series of geography questions first, like city, suburb, rural, etc. Also we know there have been different sets of mandates by state and even by county, so that would have been important information to know. Basically, this is a poll that tells us nothing useful. It also lacks context and has some weird results that beg for explanation like why do conservatives and moderates reverse course in late March on in-person school? Or, why are moderates trending more likely to be concerned about Covid personal risk? I would humbly suggest one take a critical view of social science research as one would do with hard sciences. FYI..............if I never read anything from the NYTimes for the rest of my life, I would be happy.
fair criticism... particularly the last sentence.
…..last two sentences.