A couple of weeks ago, The Daily Cardinal crafted a week-long feature for the opinion page dedicated to science education in America. We took a look at how science is shaped in the mind-grapes of America's adolescents, from pre-school all the way up to Calculus 222. One of the key points we emphasized throughout the week was the need for more people to think like scientists, to stop taking things at face value and actually dig and experiment to find the truth.
Now, with the release of a new study on college education from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, that need should be as obvious as it has ever been.
The study has gained some notoriety recently thanks in part to the newly minted viral video status of a Fox News interview featuring Tucker Carlson discussing its findings on ""Fox & Friends."" The basic claim of the study is simple: Attending college makes people more liberal.
The study surveyed professionals with at least a bachelor's degree as well as a separate group who had obtained at most a high school diploma. The study found that 39 percent of college graduates were in favor of same-sex marriage, compared to only 25 percent of lesser-educated persons. Thus, apparently it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that college brainwashes students into becoming liberal automatons, ready to march to the drum of Barack Hussein Obama and take over the world for his nefarious purposes. Mua ha ha ha.
The problem? That conclusion is completely asinine.
First and foremost, in order to infer any actual change in the persons studied, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute would need to use a longitudinal model instead of the cross-sectional study they actually used. In a cross-sectional model, researchers take two separate sample groups, study each at the same time, compile separate data for each sample and then compare the two. This model offers up numerous confounds, as the groups you are comparing together are obviously, well, different. The college graduates could have just as easily been liberal before they entered college, and liberal kids just might be more likely to attend college. That's every bit as likely as the complete shift in ideology the friendly friends at ""Fox & Friends"" would have you believe.
At the end of this study, all the Institute should have been able to claim was that college graduates are different from non-college graduates, which my four-year-old cousin Richard probably could have told you. Granted, Richard's a smart kid, but still. He's four.
What this study is pretending to be is a longitudinal study. An experiment using a longitudinal model relies on only one sample group and tracks them over time. The data is measured at the beginning of the study and at the end, then compared. This is a much better gauge of whether an actual change has occurred in the sample, because you are comparing the same people at two different points in time.
But the Intercollegiate Studies Institute didn't do that. They decided to do it the stupid way. They decided to give the anti-intellectual dolts at Fox News more ammunition to attack college professors as far-left propagandists corrupting this nation's youth. They reduce the credibility of educational research in general by crafting such a scientific hack piece. But worst of all, they belittle the pursuit of knowledge, inferring that you need to choose between the pursuit of knowledge and holding on to your short-sighted political ideology—and if you have to choose between the two, choose your short sighted political ideology.
But nobody comments on that. Sure, ""Fox & Friends"" and Tucker Carlson have been soundly mocked, but the study still floats out there on the ether with most of the masses taking it at face value. It's depressing that such an easily debunked study can gain any traction at all when just a little scientific thought will dismiss it quicker than an e-mail from a Nigerian prince.
But you probably shouldn't listen to me. I'd wager that the Intercollegiate Studies Institute will tell you critical thinking makes you more liberal too.
Todd Stevens is a junior majoring in history and psychology. Please send all responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
