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Political Ideologies and Math

3 Pages 793 Words August 2015

Psychology researchers from prominent universities have been studying the effects of political ideology on the ability to do math. In the political article, by Dan M. Kahan, "Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math", Kahan shows left-leaning and the right-leaning were equally guilty of using their ideology without using math. This paints the embarrassing picture that people only look as far as they want to see. Researchers used made up statistics on a new skin cream and on how well gun control works as an example to show the relation between mathematical reasoning and personal views. People should question and critique rather than sway towards their political or religious views. Ideology can create a mental barrier between one’s own opinion and a scientific fact.
Ideology is the perception of the world you live in, not only as views but a set of goals, the perfect schema for one’s life to follow. Which is a basis for one's decisions and perceptions throughout time, it can be found through family relations, leaders, and previous significant experiences. While an ideology is built over time not made overnight, this is where you see stereotypes about people with years of experiences that have developed a strong ideology that will not waver under most scrutiny. Mountains will have to be moved in order for people to change their fundamental thoughts, theories and traditions.
(Dan M. Kahan)
As you can see above, researchers used a fake statistic to see how people performed in mathematics. More than half 59% of people chose the incorrect answer in the control group. At a glance it looks like the skin cream did help, it is when you look at the percentages that you see this is not true, patients who did use the new skin cream improved at about a three to one ratio while patients without the treatment improved at a five to one ratio. Chris Mooney stated:
But now take the same basic study design and data, and simply
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