anti-propaganda-istNov 30th, 2007 - 19:42:16

First and foremost, they never defined what the variable 'mental health' was. Second, it was all SELF REPORT, which means there is no objective data behind it. Third of all they do not offer their statistical tools (how did they come up with their regression coefficients?, THEY NEVER SHOWED BASELINE CHARACTERISTICS or defined the population including total population size, bias, alpha/beta erorrs, and what is this significance to the .000 level? That looks like a post-hoc analysis becasue you can NOT do a calculation with the denominator of 0.

They are incorrectly attributing a cuasal relationship to an association and wait until the end of the third page to state that.

Also, this IS NOT a random sample (the pinnacle of a reseacrh study), as those who answer the gallup poll in the first place are biased (inclusion bias, such as having land line telephones, being home at that time in november, ...perhaps there is a seasonal affective issue and republicans from california were counted as opposed to democrats from Michigan) They never reported the number of people not reached or more importanlty, which were excluded from the data analysis.


The most important statement is this:

'...A recent Gallup report (see 'Strong Relationship Between Income and Mental Health' in Related Items) reviewed these mental health data more generally, and found that men, those with higher incomes, those with higher education levels, and whites are more likely than others to report excellent mental health. Some of these patterns describe characteristics of Republicans, of course...'


For example, those making 50K a year are more likely to report 'ecellent mental health' I ask are the numbers 67 vs 54 vs 48 (and what is this a percent,presumably absolute, how about reporting the confidence intervals, standard error, variance) statistically or clinically significant?

Obviously this is a CONFOUNDER and NO CONCLUSIONS can be made other than an unconfirmed association exists.

It is concerning that this is reaching the general public and being passed off as a valid scientific/statistical study

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meNov 30th, 2007 - 21:18:24

I'm not surprised that those who are lacking in introspection would be more likely to report their own mental condition as healthy. It makes a lot of sense.

Others would notice that many of those republicans who claim excellent mental health suffer delusions of all kinds on a regular basis.

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pjDec 1st, 2007 - 01:57:40

How about this one. The party of victimization, Democrats, either feel like victims in their own lives or see every sad social situation as a product of someone or something doing them wrong. Perhaps those identifying with the Republican party feel that they make their own happiness and look to their bad or misjudged behaviour when something goes wrong. They feel more in control of their lives and are willing to take responsibility for the bad and take credit for the good. I see many Democrats looking to a large far-away entity, the federal government, for so many answers to so many things. That in itself creates such a feeling of helplessness. As a woman, I can see many of my fellow female citizens falling prey to this mentality. It is the mommy party vs. the daddy party.

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rightwingcoingeekDec 1st, 2007 - 03:06:24

This does not surprise me at all. Republicans tend to be more rational (left brain) and Democrats tend to be more emotional (right brain). Republicans usually want to conduct policy in a way that is efficient and according to the Constitution while Democrats (like adolescent children) want to do what is 'fair'.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans often get accused of having no feelings! That is not the case but most of us sublimate our passions to our reason whereas Democrats sublimate their reason to their passion - Bill Clinton 'doing it' with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office being an excellent case in point - what was he thinking? He wasn't. He was being the 'Feeler-In-Chief' (in more ways than one!) as the media used to call him. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said one of the reasons he quit is because the Clinton White House would not pursue any policy that less than 51% of the American people didn't feel good about.

Even if one of the readers wants to criticize this poll on technical grounds, the fact remains that 58% of people who were Republicans said they felt better about themselves vs Independents or Democrats. It is likely because they look at the world rationally and with realistic expectations rather than being let down when things are 'not fair' as liberals whine.

People who want to eradicate war, poverty and disease have good intentions but those who think they can eradicate every imperfection large or small from the human condition are living in a Utopian fantasy land and will be, no doubt, upset with the world we live in.

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SP4: is this...Dec 1st, 2007 - 17:00:57

...the stupidest thing you have ever read?

No, but it's just AS stupid as anything else.

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MacDec 2nd, 2007 - 00:22:09

The Gallup results are surprising, but make sense. The message of the Democratic Party:

1. People are victims (per Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton) and therefore cannot succeed.
2. People cannot take care of themselves and need government to provide for them.
3. The war is lost (Harry Reid and Company)
4. Our soldiers are murderers (John Murtha).
5. The World is coming to an end (Global Warming).

There is nothing positive in the party message. And that message keeps getting repeated over and over and over again. It is depressing.

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