http://bigthink.com/big-think-tv/do-political-beliefs-affect-mathematical-ability
This is perhaps, one of the more interesting articles I've ever found on the internet. While the article itself isn't very long, it is certainly very credible. Discussing the ways in which political controversy affects an individual's skills in regards to everyday life, the article establishes itself as credible right off the bat, providing a link to a thirty-six page article on the experiment performed. In addition, it provides a video discussing the topic in great detail, which I highly recommend that you watch. It's an English guy in a seemingly professional setting, so it comes across as a legitimate source right off the bat. The guy explains the research, done at Yale University, in a straightforward, concise manner. Essentially, this test aimed to determine the ways in which a person's political views can impact their ability to solve math problems. The participants were first given an impartial math problem, relating to the use of skin cream and how it could impact rashes. The participants were given a pair of charts with values and asked to explain whether the use of a hypothetical cream helped people with rashes. For one of the charts, the cream would be more helpful; in another chart, the cream would be less helpful. This first problem assessed the participant's overall math skills. The second question, which mirrored the first, was about gun control. Of the two charts given to the participants, the first suggested that increased gun control lowered crime rate, and the second suggested that an increase in gun control raised the crime rate. People performed worse on the second question than the first question, as a result of their political views; participants who had identified themselves as conservative got results that suggested that increasing gun control raised crime rates for both charts, while those liberal participants arrived at answers suggesting that increasing gun control lowered crime rates for both charts. This scenario demonstrates the true power of human tenacity - when we are strongly opinionated or biased in favor (or against) a particular thing, we are less likely to listen to reason and more likely to take actions that reflect our support of our views. This is certainly very applicable for us today, what with the government shutdown and the threat of chaos knocking on our door. Maybe it's time we reconsidered what we're willing to negotiate.
Very insightful, after reading the title alone, I wanted to say that I do think math skills impacts politics. Although that is the vice versa, I feel that in math, you have to comprehend equations and sometimes, like in calculus and algebra, you have to find an unknown value (i.e. what does 'x' equal?) which could correspond with politicians needing to find an answer to a national crisis. Although math equations, there is a concrete way to solve something using a formula and in politics, there is no formula, both require critical thinking which is where these two topics overlap.
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