How Education, Occupation, and Gender Influence Science Reasoning

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This study examines how gender, education, and occupation affect science reasoning, basic knowledge, and pseudoscience support. It will employ a unique, underutilized, NSF archive: the Surveys of U.S. Public Attitudes Toward Science and Technology 1979-1999. In earlier research, the principal investigator discovered sex differences in knowledge and pseudoscience after controlling for education and occupation. In this proposal, education and occupation will be examined in more detail, and will include aspects of science reasoning, such as understanding experiments or basic probability. It will examine how these predictors interact with reasoning and knowledge over time, including causal structural equation models that assess the effects of gender, dimensions of education, and dimensions of occupation. It will also study relationships among basic knowledge, reasoning, and pseudoscience support, controlling for gender, education, and occupation. These results could prove useful to government agencies, educators, concerned citizens, and scholars who study gender, public opinion, and science, technology and society.