Public Opinion of Public School Teachers

Results from an annual poll conducted by Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) and Gallup shed light on Americans' views on teachers at public schools. According to the poll, 76% of respondents said that they "think high-achieving high school students should be recruited to become teachers" and 74% said they would encourage the brightest person they know to become a public school teacher if that person said they would like to be a teacher. Furthermore, 67% said they would like to have a child of their own "take up teaching in public schools as a career." There was less of a consensus on math and science teachers, however. When asked "which do you think is more important for our nation's future -- to encourage high school and college students with skills in science and math to become scientists or to become science and math teachers?" 48% of respondents said "become scientists" and 48% said "become science and math teachers." While these results suggest that Americans see a need for talented scientists, they also feel that intelligent young people and their own children should be encouraged and recruited to become teachers.

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Perception of People in a Persistent Vegetative State

A recent article in The Economist discusses the rather surprising results of a psychological study conducted by Kurt Gray of the University of Maryland, and Annie Knickman and Dan Wegner of Harvard University. In the study, the researchers asked people that they stopped at random in public in New England to evaluate the mental capacities of those that were living in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) or dead. First, respondents were read one of three different stories, selected at random. In all of the stories a person named David had gotten into a car accident and suffered serious injuries; in one story he had recovered fully, in another he died, and in the third his "entire brain was destroyed, except for the one part that keeps him breathing" (or he had entered a PVS). Respondents were then asked to what extent David could "influence the outcome of situations," "know right from wrong," "remember the events of his life," "have emotions and feelings," "be aware of his environment," and "have a personality." They then rated each of these 6 mental capacities on a scale of -3 to 3 where -3 was "strongly disagree," 0 was "neither agree nor disagree," and 3 was "strongly agree." The graph (right) shows the average ratings of respondents that were read each of the three stories. As the graph indicates, respondents on average rated "dead" David as more mentally capable than the David in a vegetative state across all 6 categories of mental awareness. As the author of the article put it, "In the view of the average New Yorker or New Englander, the vegetative David was more dead than the version who was dead." One hypothesis the researchers had for these results was respondents' religious belief in an after-life, which they found did in fact influence responses in a follow-up study.

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Obesity in the U.S.

According to results from part of Gallup's Healthways Well-Being Index, which is based on interviews conducted daily across the U.S., over 20% of Americans in all states are obese. Obesity rates were calculated based on respondents' reported height and weight, which was then used to calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI) scores. Respondents with BMI's of 30 and above were considered to be obese. The tables (right) show the ten states with the lowest and ten states with the highest obesity rates from January to June 2011. As the tables indicate, Colorado was the state with the lowest obesity rate of 20.1% and West Virginia was the state with the highest obesity rate at 34.3%. The national obesity rate from January to June 2011 was 26.3%. While the national obesity rate was about the same from January to June 2010 at 2.6.6%, the survey found that obesity rates are generally rising in states where they are already highest and declining in states where they are already lowest. The map (right) illustrates the regional nature of obesity, with Southern and Midwestern states genearlly having obesity rates in the "higher range" and Northeastern and Western states having obesity rates in the "lower range" to "midrange."

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Marriage in Asia

A recent article in The Economist explores the decline in marriage rates in Asia, as well as its causes and potential consequences. The first graph from the article (right) shows an upward trend in the average marriage age of women since 1970 in India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. As the graph shows, the average marriage age of women was about 28-30 in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea in 2005. This is higher than in the US, where the average age of marriage in the US is about 26, according to the article.

The second graph shows a dramatic increase in the percent of 35-39 year-old women that were unmarried in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Singapore. The growing number of unmarried women in their late 30s suggests that not only are women getting married later, but less women from these countries are ever getting married. One cause of the increasing number of unmarried women in these countries is an increase in education, employment and income of women. The article sites a survey conducted in Beijing in 2003 that found that half of women with a monthly income of 5,000-15,000 yuan (about $600-$1,800) were unmarried. Half of these unmarried women respondents said they did not need to be married because they were financially independent. The article also points out that the marriage rate of women declines with every level of education in Asian countries, with university graduates least likely to marry. According to the article, Asian women with higher levels of education and income face a larger opportunity cost of giving up a career to have children, leading many to choose work, .

China and India, Asia's two largest countries, seem to be less affected by this decline in marriage rates as they have shown only slight increases in the percentage of unmarried women in their late 30s since 1970. While women may not be growing more hesitant to marry like they are in surrounding countries, there will simply be less women to marry due to the distorted sex ratios already present in both countries. Largely a result of sex-selective abortion, a process in which "parents use pre-natal screening to identify the sex of the fetus and rid themselves of daughters," there were more than 118 boys born for every 100 girls in China and 109 boys born for every 100 girls in India in 2010, according to the article. The article sites studies done by Avraham Ebenstein of Harvard University and Ethan Sharygin of the University of Pennsylvania, which project that by 2030, 8% of Chinese men aged 25 and older will be unable to marry because of the country's distorted sex ratio and about 10-15% by 2050. These projections are also shown in the second graph (right).
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Washington D.C. Most Optimistic About the Economy

According to Gallup's Daily tracking poll, Washington D.C. had the highest (and only positive) Economic Confidence Index score throughout the first half of this year (January-June 2011), with a score of +11. As the chart shows, Washington D.C.'s Economic Confidence Index score was substantially larger than the rest of the states within the "top ten" most economically optimistic states, which ranged from -13 in North Dakota to -20 in Virginia. The state with the lowest Economic Confidence Index score was West Virginia with a score of -44. The average Economic Confidence Index score nationwide during the first half of this year, down two points from the first half of 2010, was -28. This has plunged in the past two weeks, as it dropped to -53 during the first week of August. This is the lowest score since March 2009, during the recession.
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Life Satisfaction Stable Despite Increased Wealth in China

Results from an annual poll conducted by Gallup shows that despite a huge increase per capita GDP in China since 1999, the Chinese people's sense of well-being or quality of life has remained more or less unchanged over the same time period. Gallup asked respondents to rate their lives on a 0 to 10 "ladder" based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, in which respondents are told that the top of the ladder, 10, "represents the best possible life for you" and the bottom of the ladder, 0, "represents the worst possible life for you." As the graph (right) indicates, the average life rating in China has remained stable around 4.7 since 1999. The per capita GDP, on the other hand, has more than tripled since 1999, going from $2,152 to $7,536 in 2010. These results put China below most other countries surveyed in Eastern and Southeastern Asia, with an average life rating above only respondents in Mongolia and Cambodia. As the second chart shows (right), Singapore had the highest average life rating among these countries at 6.5. One possible reason wealth may have a negligible impact on life satisfaction in China - put forward by the Gallup article discussing these results - is that cultural norms and Confucian influence "lead Chinese people to avoid using material wealth as an appropriate basis for evaluating their lives."

George Alter accepts five-year appointment as ICPSR Director

George Alter, acting director of ICPSR since November 2009, has accepted the position of Director for a five-year term starting in September.

Alter has been in important administrative roles at ICPSR since 2007, when he started as Associate Director of ICPSR and Director of the Collection Development unit.

His appointment as Director marks an important milestone in ICPSR's development, and will help the consortium take advantage of new research and preservation opportunities over the next several years.

"The ICPSR Council, ISR leadership and I have full confidence in George's ability in leading ICPSR during this period," said ISR Director James S. Jackson.

"As we look toward new opportunities and challenges in data management, we're truly excited about the future of ICPSR under the capable leadership of George Alter," said Ann Wolpert, chair of the ICPSR Council.

Along with his position at ICPSR, Alter holds two academic appointments at the University of Michigan -- Professor of History and Research Professor at ISR's Population Studies Center. He is also president of the Social Science History Association in 2011.

Before coming to ICPSR, Alter was a professor in the History Department at Indiana University, where he had held various positions since 1979. He holds a bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master's in Applied Economics from U-M.

"I'm thrilled to serve this great organization at such an exciting time. There has never been as much recognition of the important work that we do at ICPSR, and the coming years promise to be challenging and productive," Alter said.

Alter replaces Myron Gutmann, who left ICPSR after 8 years as director to lead the National Science Foundation's Social, Behavioral and Economics Directorate.

Percent of Adults Who Smoke Cigarettes and their Attitudes About Their Health Risks

Results from Gallup's annual consumption poll show that the percent of adults that report smoking has stabilized around 22%, the level it has more or less been over the last five years. The highest percentage of adult smokers ever measured by Gallup was 45% in 1954 and has been declining steadily since.

According to a Gallup article discussing the results of this poll, the fairly consistent poll results regarding adults' attitudes about smoking over the last decade also suggest that adults have "made up their minds" about the health risks of smoking and secondhand smoke despite new scientific findings. About 2 in 3 smokers now believe that smoking is "very harmful" to adults who smoke, tying the record high that was previously reached in 2004. This is still substantially lower than the percent of adults overall and adult nonsmokers that believe that smoking is "very harmful," which is 81% and 86% respectively.

A smaller percentage of Americans across all groups believe that exposure to secondhand smoke is "very harmful," with only 35% of smokers, 54% of adults overall and 59% of non-smokers believing it is "very harmful."

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Global Views of Muslims, Christians and Jews

A recent study conducted by Pew Research Center surveyed populations on their views of Muslims, Christians and Jews in 14 different countries. As the chart (right) indicates, in four of the six predominately Christian countries included in the study (the US, Britain, France and Russia), a majority of the population said they viewed Muslims favorably. Spain and Germany were the two exceptions, with 37% and 45% respectively having favorable opinions of Muslims. Western views of Jews were largely favorable in these countries ranging from 59% favorable in Spain to 84% favorable in France. While Muslim views of Christians varied widely, they were generally less favorable than Western views of Muslims. A majority of those surveyed in Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt did not view Christians favorably while only a narrow majority in Indonesia (52%) and Jordan (57%) viewed Christians favorably. Lebanon, which has a substantial Christian population, was the exception to this trend with 98% of those surveyed having favorable views of Christians. Those surveyed in predominately Muslim countries had significantly less favorable views of Jews than they did of Christians, with less than 10% having favorable views of Jews in each of the countries. Of those surveyed in Israel, 19% had favorable views of Muslims, 54% had favorable views of Christians, and 88% had favorable views of Jews.

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