I don't think you are an aberration; in SA's study, compsci/engineering profs just have more of a balance between self-identified Democrats and Republicans. (And more Independents than in all the other departments.)
Party affiliation, comp sci/engineering:
28.0 Democrat
48.7 Independent
23.3 Republican
Similar for political orientation.
Political orientation, comp sci/engineering:
10.7 Liberal
78.0 Moderate
11.3 Conservative
(Would many on this forum enjoy labelling themselves as a "liberal"? The term is usually an epithet. "Fire breathing liberal" sounds like a paradox or a joke or something.)
My informal impression is that Republicans often show public contempt for humanities and the abstract sciences. But they're much friendlier to conventional engineering. (I think this might've been touched on in the paper, but I haven't read it closely enough yet.) And I don't know whether compsci really fits in with more conventional engineering.
All the best, Tayssir
PS -- Almost offtopic, people might like to watch the amazing old BBC series "Connections", which talked about scientific discoveries in a different way than usually taught: http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesBurkeWeb#p/p
On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 12:00 AM, <SergioL652 at aol.com> wrote:
> I guess I am an aberration
>
> Sergio Lopez
> MSCE
>
>
> In a message dated 3/16/2010 8:05:06 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> wsoko52 at gmail.com writes:
>
> Chuck G. is right. There small businessman mentality seems to be the
> root cause of conservatism of many engineering types. I would also add
> another factor: cognitive rigidity an intolerance of uncertainty and
> ambiguity that creates emotional need for control and certitude. Many
> engineers (including my old man) seem to have that trait - that is perhaps
> what attracted them to engineering in the first place (the more creative
> and
> free-thinking types tend to gravitate toward arts, humanities and
> social/behavioral sciences.) From that, there is only a small step to
> embrace an ideology that professes "law and order" which in this country
> happens to be conservative but elsewhere (eg. former Soviet bloc) can be
> communist.
>
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