The General Social Survey asked people what subjects they thought students most need to learn. How did support for teaching sex education differ for people of different political persuasions (Democrat, Republican, and Independent)? What about for people of different races (White, Black, Other)? How did support for teaching science and technology differ for people with different religious attitudes (Fundamentalist, Moderate, Liberal)? In each case, how do you know?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANS: Democrats were much more likely to see teaching sex education as essential or important than were Independents, who were themselves more likely to support it than were Republicans. I much higher percentage of African Americans than of Whites or Others saw teaching sex education as essential, but the many African Americans only saw it as fairly important. There was no difference between attitudes of the various religious groups toward teaching science. In each case, you examine the “p<___” and “conf>____”; p is less than or equal to 0.05 and confidence is greater than or equal to 95%, then there is a difference between the groups. If p is greater than 0.05 and confidence less than 95% -- as is the case for the religious groups – then there is no statistically significant difference between the groups’ answers.