Philosophy News Survey: One Week Results

Date

September 3, 2013

author

Thank you to everyone who has taken our survey.

If you haven’t taken our survey, we’d love to have you participate!  Here is an initial analysis of the information you’ve provided and a preview of things to come. Check back often as we’ll be updating you on the results of the survey so you can see how closely you align to other readers of Philosophy News.

Half of our survey takers so far have completed the entire survey! Thank you!  As you can see in the graph below, completion drops off significantly after the first section (1/8) and continues to diminish as the survey continues towards the end (8/8).

I did a little correlation analysis of the data and discovered that the most highly correlated statistic we have collected so far with completion rates is the primary area of philosophical interest (see the chart below; blue indicates completion of the entire survey). All of the sub-disciplines except for science have less than 50% completion rates while those who are most interested in science have a completion rate of greater than 50%.  Are those who are most interested in science more appreciative of the value of surveys and hence more willing to complete them? Perhaps, but I hope the other sub-disciplines will soon prove this to be wrong… In any case, if you have not completed your survey (all of sections 1 through 8) please do so.  We’d really appreciate it.  And it won’t take too long.  We promise.

Finally, what features most characterize our survey takers?  Who are you?  I took the answer to any question that was chosen more than 50% of the time and have posted the results below.  Roughly (and most interestingly), the majority of our survey takers are:

males
fine with eating meat (but don’t abuse animals)
not in school
atheists
deontological with respect to normative ethics
take a constructive empiricist approach to science yet believe in direct realism when it comes to perception (perhaps there is a contradiction here, or at least a tension)
believe abortion is always morally permissible.