Grand Poll Results, Part 4: Correlations #2

[Slawbug]

The Grand Spiderweb Poll Results

 

PART FOUR: CORRELATIONS, SECOND SET

 

Please see all the info and disclaimers in the first results post.

 

This post focuses on the second half of the demographics data. Please remember that "correlation" doesn't tell you anything about the nature of the relationship, which may be neither causative nor direct, and that the small sample sizes involved in some of these correlations eliminate most of their statistical significance. It is likely that some of these correlations are in line with larger trends, and others are not. This is nonetheless an interesting snapshot of what our community is like.

 

I'm not listing the most easily predictable correlations, such as teen members not having doctorates. If I don't list a correlation, there likely was not a significant one. Where I list two numbers (e.g., 50% vs 40%) the second number is the average for all members not in the named group.

 

OK, here we go!

 

———

 

RELIGION

 

Current Christians were:

— more likely to choose "straight" (94% vs 65%)

— far more likely to state that their sanity was eaten by the fluffy turtles unwillingly (29% vs 3%)

— more likely to live in rural places (41% vs 21%)

— far more likely to be very serious about their religion (35% vs 3%) or moderately serious about it (35% vs 3%)

— more likely to study the physical sciences (29% vs 5%)

— far more conservative-leaning on economic issues (65% vs 37%)

— *overwhelmingly* more conservative-leaning on social issues (70% vs 2%).

— far less likely to lean towards servile equality (30% vs 59%)

— more likely to prefer the story of the Avernum games (59% vs 24%)

— more likely to favor the story of the first Avernum game (24% vs 5%)

— gave low ratings to the Nethergate games (3.3 vs 4.2)

 

When comparing people based on what religion they were brought up with, instead, these differences mostly disappear or drop to negligible levels.

 

People who changed their religious views compared to what they were brought up with were:

— less likely to choose "straight" (55% vs 84%)

— leaned more towards liberal social views (91% vs 71%)

— leaned far more towards servile equality (78% vs 37%)

— much less likely to favor rock music (23% vs 58%)

— more likely to favor the story of the Geneforge series (59% vs 34%)

 

Agnostics were:

— younger (average age 20 vs 27)

— the least likely to choose "straight" (50% vs 78%)

— the most likely to claim their sanity was still intact (50% vs 32%)

— the least likely to consider Geneforge 1 as having the best story of its series (20% vs 59%)

— gave lower ratings on average (3.35 vs 3.66)

 

Atheists were:

— least interested in the formal sciences (15% vs 42%) and physical sciences (0% vs 18%)

— most interested in the applied sciences (35% vs 10%)

— 100% liberal-leaning on social issues

— the most likely to lean towards servile equality (75% vs 40%)

— the most likely to favor Nethergate's story (25% vs 10%)

 

People who identified as belonging to other religions, and as being unaffiliated theists, did not make up large enough groups to do this kind of analysis with. In looking at their individual answers, they were scattered all over the place and do not easily fall into any of the same patterns seen among Christians, agnostics, or atheists.

 

 

EDUCATION

 

For this analysis, I had to do some lumping. I made 4 groups: current and future high schoolers; college students and other post-high schoolers; respondents with 2 and 4 year degrees; and respondents with any more advanced degrees. I'll refer to these groups as teens (the whole group is under 18), undergrads, bacs, and post-bacs.

 

— Age correlates, obviously: average ages were 15, 23, 28, and 34 respectively. As usual I will be avoiding listing further correlations that seem to be simply the result of this age correlation. Everything listed here stood out more than it did when I did the math by age.

— All our teens are straight males. This is a definite demographic shift from 5 or 6 years ago, when we had more teens and more diversity among them.

— Undergrads were less likely to live in urban areas (10% vs 35%)

— None of our post-bacs live in rural areas

— Post-bacs were more likely to lean towards servile equality (67% vs 45%)

— Education correlated mostly negatively with votes for the Geneforge series story (71%, 50%, 29%, 44%), but quite the reverse with votes for Geneforge 1 as having the best story of the series (29%, 40%, 58%, 78%).

— Teens gave *extremely* low ratings to the Nethergate games (average of 1.8 vs 4.1). They gave slightly higher-than-average ratings to most Geneforge games.

 

 

PRIMARY ACADEMIC FIELD

 

— True to stereotype, almost all our non-male members are in the biological sciences or the humanities.

— Physical science people gave average game ratings substantially higher than others did (4.12 vs around 3.50)

 

 

EMPLOYMENT STATUS

 

— Students and the unemployed tended to come from the wealthier families. Part-time job holders tended to come from the poorer ones.

— The unemployed had a strong preference for PCs (80% vs 44%)

 

 

WEALTH

 

In terms of personal wealth:

— People who identified as middle class were far less likely to be single (20% vs 84%)

— People who identified as poor or working class were much less likely to claim they had protected their sanity from being eaten (9% vs 40%)

— People who identified as poor or working class were more likely to identify as Christian (55% vs 23%)

 

 

POLITICAL VIEWS: ECONOMICS

 

I lumped these into capitalist-leaning and socialist-leaning.

 

— Those leaning capitalist were more likely to be from the US (81%) than those leaning socialist (52%)

— The two groups were almost indistinguishable in terms of wealth

— The two groups were also hard to tell apart in terms of social political views

— Capitalist-leaners preferred classical music much more (37% vs 3%)

— They also preferred PCs by a much greater margin (67%/33% vs 52%/48%)

— Capitalist-leaners gave better ratings to A6, while socialist-leaners gave better ratings to G4 and Nethergate

 

 

POLITICAL VIEWS: SOCIAL

 

I again lumped these into conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning.

 

— As previously mentioned, there is an overwhelming correlation between leaning conservative and being Christian — 92% of social conservatives were Christian, compared to 11% of social liberals.

— Liberal-leaners were more likely to lean towards servile equality (55% vs 39%)

— Conservative-leaners gave better ratings to E1 and A1, while liberal-leaners gave notably better ratings to G5 (3.8 vs 2.9)

 

 

SERVILE RIGHTS

 

— As previously mentioned, those leaning towards servile equality were less likely to be Christian (16% vs 45%), more likely to be atheist (48% vs 10%), and much more likely to have changed their religion compared to what they were brought up with (55% vs 5%)

— Also as mentioned previously servile equality leaners tended to be slightly more liberal on both political spectra

— Interesting, those opposing servile equality were more likely to support tighter regulations on shaping (including a ban) (75% vs 54%)

— Those opposing servile equality favored Sliths much more (60%/20% vs 42%/48%)

— G3 got higher ratings from those opposing equality; G4, from those supporting it

— Those supporting equality also gave higher ratings to the Nethergate games, Avadon, and Avernum: EFTP

 

 

SHAPING RESTRICTIONS

 

No one supported abolishing all shaping restrictions, and very few people supported a total ban. I've compared those supporting tighter restrictions (including a total ban), versus looser restrictions.

— The loose group was far more likely to say they deposited their sanity right away (72% vs 29%) and far less likely to claim they still had it (17% vs 47%)

— The tight group was slightly more religious overall

— The tight group prefered Sliths (53%/26%) while the loose group prefered Nephils (56%/39%)

— The tight group gave somewhat higher ratings on average (3.72 vs 3.45). However, average ratings were almost identical for all Geneforge games except G3, which the tight group liked better (3.1 vs 2.5). The main difference was that the tight group was kinder to the other series.

 

 

MUSIC

 

I split these answers into rock, classical, and other. As it turned out, the classical group was consistently the primary outlier.

— The rock group was slightly older (28 vs 24) on average

— The classical group was most likely to deposit their sanity immediately (64% vs 39%)

— The classical group was most likely to hail from the US (91%) and least likely to come from any part of Europe (9% vs 20%)

— Everyone in the classical group either was Christian and took their religion very seriously (36% vs 7% in the other groups) or did not identify as actively religious

— The classical group was overwhelmingly more capitalist-leaning (91% vs 35%) but was not easily distinguishable in terms of politcal social views

— The classical group favored loose shaping restrictions notably more (55% vs 25%)

— The classical group was least likely to prefer PCs (45% vs 61%)

— The classical group was least likely to vote for Erika (18% vs 37%)

— In general, the classical group bought fewer Exile and Avernum games and slightly more Geneforge games

— This is the FIRST time I've been able to find any correlation for who voted for Geneforge 1 for favourite game. Previously, Geneforge 1 votes have been well represented in most categories. However, they are far more represented among the classical group (55%) and far less among the Other group (5%).

— The rock group gave slightly higher ratings on average (3.76 vs 3.46)

— The classical group gave lower than average ratings to the Exile series, A4, G3 and G4, and especially Avadon. It gave higher ratings to Nethergate: Resurrection.

 

 

PLATFORM PREFERENCE

 

Aside from the minor correlations with demographics already mentioned:

— PC users on average purchased more Exile and Avernum titles, while Mac (and other) users were more likely to purchase Nethergate: Resurrection, Avadon, and Avernum: EFTP.

— Votes for favourite game were nearly identical between the platforms

— Ratings were also nearly identical, with the exception that Mac users gave higher ratings to A5 and both Nethergates.

 

 

NEPHIL v. SLITH

 

Compared to Slith-voters, Nephil-voters were on average...

— Older (28 vs 23)

— More likely to live in a rural place (48% vs 7%)

— Less likely to live in a suburban place (30% vs 59%)

— More likely to favor the Avernum story (48% vs 30%) and less likely to favor Geneforge's (35% vs 48%)

— Gave slightly higher ratings to the Exile trilogy and Avernum: EFTP

 

 

THE BATTLE TO THE DEATH

— People who voted Redbeard were less likely to live with their parents (27% vs 57%). It's psychosexual, baby!

— However, people who voted Redbeard tended to come from wealthier families, and nobody who identified as coming from a lower class family voted Redbeard.

— Not surprisingly, people who voted Redbeard were the most likely group to vote for Avadon as a favourite (18%) while people who voted Erika were extremely likely to vote for an Exile game (55%).

— Much more surprisingly, people who voted Redbeard gave higher than average scores to the Exile games... while people who voted Erika gave them lower than average scores to them.

— The difference in rating for Avadon was sharp: 3.6 for Redbeard voters, 2.6 for Erika voters.

[Triumph]

Truly fascinating! Thank you, Slarty!

 

Now I'm tempted to go replay A6 looking for capitalist messages and Nethergate looking for socialist ones. LOL.

 

Very interesting stuff.

[Slawbug]

Glad you're enjoying it!

 

I have a few theories as to why some of these factors correlate with specific games, but I'm going to save those until part 5, when I do the correlations out for each individual game.

[Cairo Jim]

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I thought of a question that wasn't asked in the polls. I know there'd be few, if not, I'd be the only one, but are there any other blue collars here?

 

Also, I would like be as serious about my faith as would thing, but in practice, I've been quite lax lately. I would be looking to be getting more serious into if I can do so.