An interesting analysis of political opinion as a function of the industry in which an individual works. (The authors of the Business Insider article seem confused about the distinction between an industry and a profession. For example, “automotive manufacturers and dealers” is an industry categorization; it includes everything from line workers at car factories to salesmen at auto dealerships to engineers and executives at GM and Ford…unlikely that all these professions have the same political preference pattern.)
2 thoughts on “The Effect of Industry of Employment on Political Views”
Comments are closed.
Interesting concept, flawed execution. Ideally the survey would include additional industries (various small business sectors? military? etc.) and would break down responses by the respondents’ roles/professions. Also, I suspect there is sampling bias based on industry/geographical location and political orientation. Conservatives in the entertainment industry might be reluctant to respond, for example.
The data is from Crowdpac, which uses political contribution data. (I believe that only contributions above $200 are required to be reported.) Contributors are supposed to provide the Employer and Occupation…looks like Crowdpac only cut it by employer, not sure why–maybe because words that can be used to describe an occupation are pretty variable.
BTW, I blamed Biz Insider for the confusion of Industry and Profession…actually, looks like this terminological confusion originated with Crowdpac.
Lots of interesting info on Crowdpac site, well worth spending some time there.