Conservatives in Academia

First read Kieran Healy, and all the comments.

Now, the view from Cleveland --

Natural scientists are more conservative as a group than their social science and humanities colleagues, just they are more religious.

About 40% of US natural scientists in a 1996 survey reported belief in a personal God; E. J. Larson & L. Witham, Nature 386, 435 - 436 (1997) (subscription req); roughly the same percentage as on the first such survey back in 1916. As I recall, the percentage for humanists and social scientists is only around 20%.

Now it is true that if we look at elite natural scientists (sorry, subscription req) there has been substantial change since 1916. But still, a puzzle, why should humanists and social scientists overall be more atheistic (and more liberal, and more democratic) than their natural science counterparts?

Occam's razor (thank to that Duke prof. for reminding this thick conservative of it) suggests that the explanation just might be the same as the explanation for why we see so small a percentage of US citizens in Ph.D. programs in Computer Science and so many in law school taking courses on Internet Law.

Can you say: differential opportunity costs? I knew you could.