Non-theist labels vs age

One of my readers asked if I would look and see if there was any correlation with age and the types of non-theist labels my readers used. Here you go (click it for a larger image):Sample size:
<20 = 68
21-25 = 139
26-30 = 103
31-35 = 54
36 – 45 = 61
46< = 42

I’m not sure the best way to test for statistical significance, and I’m too tired from my trip to figure it out, so let’s just look at some general trends.

First, it seems like young non-theists use more labels than older non-theists. They had the highest percent of responders for every single term. One hypothesis as to why could be that young non-theists are still trying to figure out which labels best describe them, so a lot apply right now. It could also be that a lot of these terms have just recently become popular labels, and older non-theists don’t identify with them.

The most glaring difference that I see is that young people love to be silly and call themselves Pastafarians. Oh, and that pretty much everyone hates the term Bright equally. No big surprise with either of those.

I’m not sure if I feel safe to make any more interpretations without some stats. Any older readers want to throw in their two cents?

Harvard update

I thought I’d give you guys a quick update about my trip to Harvard. First of all, my flight was…eventful. We were supposed to land in Boston at 4:20, but their airport was closed because of the snow. Instead we had to land in Providence, RI. It took over an hour to deplane since everyone was landing there and they were understaffed. I smartly grabbed a quick dinner, and then we reboarded at 7:20. …We didn’t take off until 10:20 because a plane was stalled on Boston’s runway and no one could land. Yep, I got to sit on a plane for three hours. Fun stuff. Everyone was getting so cranky that they started giving us free alcohol, but at that point I just kind of went to sleep.

Other than that, Harvard was wonderful. The campus was absolutely beautiful. All of the winding old streets were a bit insane – how did it take so long for people to build cities on grids? The department was housed in the same building as the natural history museum, which was equally amazing from the short peak I got. Exhibits on global warming and evolution, shiny rocks and skeletons and every taxidermy animal you can think of!

More importantly, the people were great. I met with faculty and current grad students from 10 until 6. Everyone was intelligent (obviously) and super nice – they totally defied the stuffy Harvard stereotype. I learned all about the department, life as a grad student, living in Boston. Don’t want to say anything more than that before I visit my other potential schools, though. Sorry! (Though as a fun side note, I met the professor who did the study that was in Nature recently on how running barefoot actually causes less stress and injuries – you may have seen it around the internet. He was wonderful!)

My potential advisor and her husband (another professor in the department) took me out to a very nice restaurant for dinner. Our conversation was everything you shouldn’t talk about at dinner – sex, politics, and religion. They were really interested in what it was like being an evolutionary biologist and an atheist in Indiana (I included the Society in my resume, and they gave me major kudos for it). Long story short: I think I will be much more comfortable living in the east coast. Perk: No longer have to totally freak out about the professor finding my blog, since she’d probably agree with what I’m saying. Downside: What the heck will I blog about if I’m living in Liberal Land?

The flight back was kind of uneventful, except for Random Talkative Older Guy who talked to me the whole first flight (only 45 minutes, thankfully). Usually I don’t mind chatting with strangers, but I was just so exhausted that morning. He was nice though, and surprisingly very pro science and evolution. He was joking about how he’d keep an eye on me for when I’m presenting my awesome research on tv – maybe one day!

(Oh, and since people were asking, yes, I’m pretty much in. Just going to come down to me saying yes or no!)

Guest post: Canadatheism: The Northern Perspective

This is a Guest Post by Jon, a reader from up North who wanted to shed some light on atheism in America’s Hat. Er, I mean Canada. He writes over at his fiction blog, Our Man Jonesy. Take it away, Jon:

Canadatheism: The Northern Perspective
(Or: “Fundamentalism in Canada has been cancelled due to snow”)

Greetings from the frozen wastelands of Canada! While Jen’s away, I’d like to give you a general feel for atheism as it exists in the land of hockey and maple syrup. Those readers actually from Canada: feel free to sit back and talk amongst yourselves while I toss off pearls of Canadian stereotype to keep the Yanks entertained. If you’re from elsewhere, just play along for now and you’ll be able to tell your cocktail/hookah/opium den chums about how much you know about about foreign cultures.

If you’re living in the ‘States, you’ve probably heard of us before. We’re the place that everyone threatens to move if the Republicans win another election. A lot of us speak French, we use the metric system, and if you ask us, it’s not actually that cold out. And how’s the religion like out there? Well, it’s pretty mild, actually . Fiercely mild. If general polling is correct, up to a third of us acknowledge ‘No Religion’, and in a country with the population the size of the state of California, that’s rather an accomplishment, if I may be so bold. It’s at the point that the leader of the opposition party (Michael Ignatieff) can say things like:

“Some people will have no difficulty thinking human beings are sacred, because they happen to believe in the existence of God the Father and believe He created Mankind in His likeness … Far better, I would argue, to forego these kinds of foundational arguments altogether and seek to build support for human rights on the basis of what such rights actually do for human beings.”

Yeah, baby. That said, Canadian politics is a morass of apathy. Our parliament has been prorogued for the second year running, and our current head of government is a rather Christian individual. Nonetheless, we’ve really only got a few problems when it comes to openly displaying our ability to say ‘Godless’ in both official languages.

First, I’m going to blatantly appeal to stereotype here and point out the general level of pathological politesse present. We’re rather polite about others’ beliefs, and their prerogative to go on believing. We go so far as to apologize for how polite we are about it. One of the big reasons why religiosity is less of a visible factor in Canadian politics is that we’re a mostly pluralistic nation. It’s not just that we have the French Catholic crowd occupying Quebec, or the Spiritual traditions of our Aboriginals; Canada also has the largest immigration rate in the world. While a lot of it is from the East Asian countries- Vancouver, our Westernmost metropolis, has jokingly considered adopting Mandarin as its second official language- we also have a not-inconsiderable level of migration from the Middle East. The difficulty arises when the more hard-core religiosity they bring comes in conflict with our own “well, if you must, I suppose” social etiquette. We’ve shrugged off the attempts at Sharia law time and time again, but at the same time, we’re far from making minarets illegal architecture. One of the central reasons why we’re so at odds to talk against fundamentalist dogma in Canada is because we seldom talk about religion at all.
Another foot-hold for stronger theism in Canada is that our populace is scattered. We have a fraction-of-a-million people each in Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary, as well as Ottawa and Quebec City; Toronto features an above-average population of 2.5 million. The rest is rural, and far from unreligious. Non-metropolitan religiosity is more notably strong in those populations living outside those few cities, to say nothing of the populated Maritime provinces. Even excluding that, only Vancouver might be said to be predominantly atheistic. Toronto’s comparative migratory draw results in a higher population of transplants from religious areas, and Montreal has, as one of its prime attractions, a huge frigging cross on its namesake hill.

But what, then, supports the noticeable secularism in Canada? I would strongly implicate the disenfranchised Anglicans that made up a lot of Early Canada. Come on- we founded a church on divorce. Why carry on the tradition if we’re on another continent entirely- though, in reality, we’re still technically headed by the British monarchy, and have a person appointed to represent it. Perhaps more relevant is that level of politesse I keep harping out about (sorry if it’s bothering you); perhaps one of the reason for the separation of church and state is precisely the ‘I’m okay with it’ pluralism that has such a hold on Canada; perhaps letting go of the gun-grabbing dogmatism that has infected other states just lets you see all the sides with equal fairness– and in the end, you get the conclusion that theism is a rather silly idea from the get-go.

…I mean, SURELY it can’t just be the [amazingly] good Canadian beer keeping everyone in a state of paralytic drunkenness, preventing extremism of any kind. The comparative poor quality of American beer might well be keeping you folks in the ‘boisterous’ stages of intoxication, thus giving rise to Megachurches, rednecks, and the frank need to satiate one’s pastorly urges with some crystal meth and pay-per-screw man-love. Just a theory. Get better beer, America.

For other Canadian Atheist Resources:
Center for Inquiry: http://www.cficanada.ca/
http://www.skepticnorth.com/

Nota Bene: The author will not, contrary to stereotype, apologize for a belief in the general superiority of Canadian beers. There are, however, some notable American beers.

(American) Ed.: And there are some terrible Canadian ones.

Endangered species condoms

No, not condoms for endangered species – that wouldn’t exactly help their problem. These are condoms with endangered species on them.

Who would be behind such a crazy project? Biologists, of course! The Center for Biological Diversity are passing out these condoms to raise awareness about overpopulation and its effect on the environment.

…Ok, I seriously want these things. There are six to collect: a burying beetle, polar bear, snail darter, spotted owl, jaguar and rock frog. Must…collect…nerdy condoms…

(Via Skepchick)

Hang out with me in Seattle!

By the time this post pops up, I’ll be on my way to the Indianapolis airport for my interview at Harvard. Wish me luck!

Don’t worry, I have some posts ready during my absence. Though if you really miss me and you live near Seattle, I’ll be there this Saturday the 20th. I have that Saturday to myself before my interview at U Washington on Sunday, so come hang out with me! I’ve made plans to meet up with two readers so far, and you should totally join us. We’ll be meeting at the Pacific Science Center at 2pm, and then go to McMenamins for some delicious food and drinks at 5pm. If you’re interested, please let me know in the comments so I can get a general idea of who’s coming and how we should all find each other.

Hooray for Seattle! I have to have more than two readers there, right? …Preferably who aren’t axe murderers?

Australian PM: PhDs are a women’s excuse to not have babies

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was recently giving a speech about the nation’s aging population and the problems it will cause. Seems like a serious topic that needs discussing – but it got interesting when he met Nina Funnell, researcher and reporter.

Arguments were made about superannuation and the strain on healthcare. But there was a deeper message: young people (women in particular) are failing in their civic duty to reproduce. Apparently, gen Y is to blame for the inverted population pyramid.

There were hundreds of people in the room but only a handful under 30. As one of the under 30-crowd, I shuffled nervously, hoping no one would recognise me – and my empty womb – as the deeply unpatriotic and traitorous felons that we are.

After Rudd came off stage, he spoke to me and the few other under-30s (we had congregated for strength in numbers). He extended his points about the problems with the ageing population and the financial problems gen Y will incur when the baby boomers become pensioners.

At that point one of my friends introduced me, dropping in that I am completing a PhD. At this, Rudd rolled his eyes and in a terse voice lacking any sense of irony remarked that is the “excuse” that “all” young women are using nowadays to avoid starting families. Since then I’ve come up with numerous one-line retorts, but in the moment I just froze in shock.

…I can’t imagine how a politician, someone who should theoretically be a master of political correctness and choosing his words carefully, would say something so horrendously stupid. Yep, women choosing to further their education is really just an excuse to get out their Ultimate Duty of Making Babies. Not because of, you know, the pursuit of knowledge, a passion for research, the desire to teach others, the excitement of discovery, the satisfaction of exploration, or the joy of personal fulfillment. Nope, it’s because we don’t want to patriotically pop out babies for the motherland.

Another annoying part is that multiple factors make many women feel like motherhood and academia just don’t mix. How can you balance morning sickness with field work? How can you do lab work with dangerous chemicals that you’re not allowed to use? How are you expected to write your thesis when you’re taking care of an infant? These are all daunting challenges.

Are women getting their PhDs with the nefarious plan that they can use these things as excuses to avoid reproduction? Of course not. Plenty of women want to have children, but put it off because they feel it’s impossible in the current academic environment. The solution isn’t to stop women from getting their PhDs. What we need to do is develop ways to make motherhood easier for academics. Make day cares more available at Universities. Make pregnancy leave a viable option for grad students. Take pregnancy into account when evaluating publications when I woman is up for tenure. Encourage men to spend more time with their children, rather than assuming that’s mom’s job.

Many women have survived grad school and motherhood simultaneously because they had appropriate accommodations. This should be a cause Rudd can rally against: I mean, all he wants us to do is breed, right? He won’t care if we happen to get a little smarter at the same time.

Australian PM: PhDs are a women's excuse to not have babies

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was recently giving a speech about the nation’s aging population and the problems it will cause. Seems like a serious topic that needs discussing – but it got interesting when he met Nina Funnell, researcher and reporter.

Arguments were made about superannuation and the strain on healthcare. But there was a deeper message: young people (women in particular) are failing in their civic duty to reproduce. Apparently, gen Y is to blame for the inverted population pyramid.

There were hundreds of people in the room but only a handful under 30. As one of the under 30-crowd, I shuffled nervously, hoping no one would recognise me – and my empty womb – as the deeply unpatriotic and traitorous felons that we are.

After Rudd came off stage, he spoke to me and the few other under-30s (we had congregated for strength in numbers). He extended his points about the problems with the ageing population and the financial problems gen Y will incur when the baby boomers become pensioners.

At that point one of my friends introduced me, dropping in that I am completing a PhD. At this, Rudd rolled his eyes and in a terse voice lacking any sense of irony remarked that is the “excuse” that “all” young women are using nowadays to avoid starting families. Since then I’ve come up with numerous one-line retorts, but in the moment I just froze in shock.

…I can’t imagine how a politician, someone who should theoretically be a master of political correctness and choosing his words carefully, would say something so horrendously stupid. Yep, women choosing to further their education is really just an excuse to get out their Ultimate Duty of Making Babies. Not because of, you know, the pursuit of knowledge, a passion for research, the desire to teach others, the excitement of discovery, the satisfaction of exploration, or the joy of personal fulfillment. Nope, it’s because we don’t want to patriotically pop out babies for the motherland.

Another annoying part is that multiple factors make many women feel like motherhood and academia just don’t mix. How can you balance morning sickness with field work? How can you do lab work with dangerous chemicals that you’re not allowed to use? How are you expected to write your thesis when you’re taking care of an infant? These are all daunting challenges.

Are women getting their PhDs with the nefarious plan that they can use these things as excuses to avoid reproduction? Of course not. Plenty of women want to have children, but put it off because they feel it’s impossible in the current academic environment. The solution isn’t to stop women from getting their PhDs. What we need to do is develop ways to make motherhood easier for academics. Make day cares more available at Universities. Make pregnancy leave a viable option for grad students. Take pregnancy into account when evaluating publications when I woman is up for tenure. Encourage men to spend more time with their children, rather than assuming that’s mom’s job.

Many women have survived grad school and motherhood simultaneously because they had appropriate accommodations. This should be a cause Rudd can rally against: I mean, all he wants us to do is breed, right? He won’t care if we happen to get a little smarter at the same time.

I literally screamed with nerdy glee

A SHIRT COMBINING DARWIN AND POKEMON?! HELLZ YES!

*ahem*

Seriously, this is freaking amazing. I just had biggest nerdgasm since I found out Dumbledore was gay or that Alan Rickman was doing the Voice for Marvin, the Paranoid Android. This is a thousand times better than my Darwin/Pokemon mash up. I’m just sad I didn’t think of it first.

There goes eighteen more dollars from my wallet.

Blag Hag Census Results Continued

Next time I make a survey, I’m putting an “Other” option on every question. Seriously, nearly everything someone wrote in was insightful, heartwarming, or cracked me up so much that I probably scared my roommate with my intermittent laughter. That’s why I think some of my favorites should get a post of their own, so I can address your anonymous comments.

But before I say anything else – seriously guys, you are all so fucking nice. Some of your comments made a tear up a bit. I started this blog as a fun hobby, and I never thought so many people would enjoy it, let alone see it as influential and important. I just hope that I can live up to your expectations! You all rock!

Just continue chronicling your journey and sharing your growth as you stumble towards intellectual maturity. I find your naivete and occasional hypocrisy both refreshing and nostalgic. Had I kept as extensive a journal when I was your age, I doubt I could be as proud of it as you will be when you are my age, looking back. You’ll also be embarrassed as hell, but that’s life. I really love your work.

Usually someone calling me naive and hypocritical would get me cranky, but I just can’t in this case because I know it’s so true. I already have things that I disagree with from my older posts, and it hasn’t even been a year. My views on atheism were very different even just a couple of years ago when I was a freshman. I often make posts where I don’t know the answer because I’m trying to figure everything out. And I know I’ll be embarrassed when I read some of these again. I’ve kept a LiveJournal since middle school, and sweet Jesus – I went back and read some of my posts recently, and they were so freaking embarrassing. Seriously, you should all be glad that I don’t finish every single one of my sentences with an emoticon anymore.

Don’t video blog! Make people read!

A sentiment held by many readers, usually in all caps. I actually prefer reading, mainly because I can go at the pace I want. Skip parts, skim…can’t exactly do that with a video. I honestly rarely watch tv or youtube videos – just isn’t my thing.

Videotape yourself kicking all those chauvinistic trolls in the balls.

Hmm, okay, maybe I’ll have to make an exception…

Okay, I know your busy so this is kinda harsh and all. In fact I honestly cant see you doing it but if you can by some miracle find some more time to blog even more regularly do that.

What really keeps me coming back to any blog, regardless of topic, is daily posts. I wake up and run to the computer and know there’s going to be something new for me to learn about on BlagHag!

Oh great, because I didn’t feel guilty enough when I skip a couple of days, haha. I’m not sure how much more I can post – sometimes I just don’t have anything else to say, even when I have time. Quality over quantity, everyone!

Less focus on negative news stories. It was getting a bit depressing there, for awhile.

Oh man, I totally agree. The problem is twofold: 1. News coverage of negative stories is a lot better, so I see it and get linked to it a lot more often. 2. I usually have nothing insightful to add to positive stories other that “Yay, that was cool.” I’ll try to be better though!

Fix the bug that makes me enter comments twice (and no, I’m not even using IE).A ‘remember me’ function would be nice, save inputting name and URL manually each time. Get some spamtrap software, or at least delete shills and ‘bots.

These are all annoying Blogger problems that I have little control of (I think?). If anyone has any solutions, please offer them in the comments, because I have no idea. Sorry! I’ll try to be better about deleting spam, I’ve gotten a bit lazy.

I think you are better when you write about what you know; atheism, science and generalised social issues to do with your age/gender. While I sometimes enjoy your articles on religion/ Christianity/theology, I think that your knowledge on these matters is too influenced by the stand you have taken (being an ‘out atheist’ in an atheist club) and is sometimes prone to being quite shallow (sorry for being harsh, just trying to be honest).

I know theology isn’t my strong point, which is why I generally don’t discuss it. Whenever I talk about religion, I try to focus on its affects on society and individuals, rather than actual debates against theology. To be honest, debating theology just isn’t interesting to me, and there are plenty of other blogs who do a great job at it. If I ever say something stupid, feel free to call me out on it.

I’m looking forward to seeing what grad school you get into and reading about your experiences there. Hopefully you will have time to engage the local community and blog about it like you have done while at Purdue. Take care.

A lot of people indicated that they were looking forward to me blogging about getting into grad school and my experiences there. Don’t worry, I plan on continuing blogging, assuming there isn’t some university wide ban on it (which would go into my decision…). Right now I don’t want to talk about it too much, since I don’t want my posts to possibly affect my odds of being accepted. Because you know, benign posts about grad school questions would totally scare professors away more than rants about religion. I may post a bit about it retrospectively, once I know I’m safe.

Speaking of rants about a religion, some people mentioned I get a little too cranky/mean when I’m ranting. An equal amount of people said they loved it and that I need to rant more. As a compromise, I will not change my level of ranting, though it may fluctuate monthly (hmm, I think I have a new statistics project…)

I think you’re in a position to really apply feminism to science in both theory and practice. These two positions don’t seem to overlap much in your commentary, and I find that a bit odd.

To be honest, I’ve been lucky enough to have a wonderful experience as a female scientist at Purdue, so I don’t have many personal anecdotes to talk about. I definitely try to keep an eye out for relevant articles. Maybe I’ll have more to talk about once I become a “real” part of academia, but hopefully not!

Focus a little bit more on feminism. There are a bazillion blogs out there and the online atheist blogging community needs a popular young female – of which you are no doubt qualified for.

Popular Young Female Atheist sounds like an awesome superhero. Give me a cape and I’m totally in. Seriously though, I think finding a niche is important, which is why I usually don’t repost popular stories unless I have my own unique comment to make about it. A lot of people asked me to keep writing about feminism, and I definitely will!

A lot of people also mentioned that they enjoyed posts about the Purdue Non-Theists and other local atheist events. I’ll definitely keep it up, no matter where I go – all of the schools I’ve applied to have active atheist groups. I think one of my niche’s is being a young person on “front lines of the atheist movement,” doing a lot of the actual activism rather than passive blogging or writing.

Aside from the crude suggestion of ‘show us your tits’- I genuinely, as a man, appreciate a lot of the feminism displayed on your blog. It is novel in its approach thanks to its use of what I would describe as being ‘sensibility’, but perhaps I’ve simply been biased by radical elements of feminism and their blatant use of ridiculous appeals to emotion. The Sagan/Dawkins recounting of some descriptions of, say, Isaac Newton’s Principia as a ‘rape manual’, or derisive reference to hypothesis as an ‘invention of rich white males’. These people are farrrrr too polarizing in their approach, so hooray for the BlagHag voice of reason. Turning to freethought is such a comfort, especially when I find my self at a loss for words at a lot of the student initiatives at my university to favour in no uncertain terms the ‘radical’ or ‘revolutionary’ perspective– in itself, is not a bad thing, but that it comes at the cost of a comprehensible and rational backing! Uch! Keep up the good work, Jen. You’re an inspiration to the female atheists (especially the one I’ve been dating for the past 3 years!), and a great place to find an utter facepalming at the day’s irrationalities. Kudos. Also: Show us your tits!

Can I check more comics 10,000 times? Love your art, Jen. Community building sounds neat too – we have all met very interesting people through your site, and that’s just awesomeness. And, you know, sexy pirate stuff. Since you put it there. hurrrrr girl atheist has boobs hurrrrr

I really appreciate knowing there are guys out there who enjoy my feminism posts. But I think what I appreciate even more is guys who know how to appropriately use boob humor. I lol’d.

More sexy ninja outfit pictures; remember that you should teach the controversy so that everyone can make an informed decision. Only posting the sexy pirate outfit pictures is so one sided. ;-)

While I do have a sexy pirate outfit, I would only be able to pull off a shirt ninja, which wouldn’t be very sexy.

Not really, just a thank you for your time helping keep us entertained and out of trouble. You know, if we didn’t read this we may end up as satanists. Or worse, Mormons.

Ha.

Eat plenty of Vegetables

You know, I really should. My eating habits are so bad. My parents never instilled good habits in me – we’re a meat, potatoes, and corn family. I’ve been thinking of trying to drastically improve my eating and exercise habits this summer so I make it my routine when I “start over” at grad school. I figure if I don’t get fit now, I’m going to doom myself to a sedentary, unhealthy life.

Personal suggestion: Do something with your hair! I know, I know…fashion and vanity are not your thing. But take it from a guy who has had to intelligently critique his spouse’s hair beyond ‘it’s fine, dear’ for 20+ years. The lank, center-part, just let it hang doesn’t do anything for you. Spend some time & money with a decent stylist & you could be a Lab/Pirate Goddess!

SO TRUE. I have always hated my hair. It used to be a giant frizzy mess, but years of fiddling with hair care products made it only a semi frizzy mess. I’m really low maintenance, so the idea of doing something more than blow drying my hair and brushing it doesn’t appeal to me at all. I had bangs until I was 12, and I loathed them so much that I’m afraid to give them a chance ever again. As a result, I’m rocking the boring middle part. My hair is longer then usual now because I’m waiting to donate it to Locks of Love again. But if I have readers who are actually knowledgeable about hair and can suggest a low maintenance style that will turn me into a Lab Goddess, I will totally do it when I donate my hair.

Torture communion wafers, it worked for PZ. Or even better, write a whole series of really popular books, it worked for Dawkins.The wafer one is probably easier.

I think I’ll go for the popular books one. Not only have I always wanted to do that, but it’s also the option that’s less likely to get me lynched.

And the winner of the night:

PZ Myers. Sorry, had to. :P

I think I would have been disappointed if no one did.

Again, thanks so much to everyone for their input! Some people had more detailed comments that are worthy of their own post, so I may pull them out in the near future.

Blag Hag 2010 Census Results

I want to thank everyone who participated in my Blag Hag 2010 Census! 467 people filled out the survey (before I closed it due to eagerness to crunch the numbers), which is absolutely amazing. I was expecting something like 50, but I guess you guys like data just as much as I do. Considering that I have slightly over 1000 subscribers (holy crap!), we did almost as well as voter turnout for the US Presidential elections! Feel special, or maybe depressed, depending how you interpret that.

Because I got a decent sample size, I actually felt safe doing some statistics and trying to interpret the results. Now, as a warning, it’s been a couple of years since I took a statistics class. It is highly probable that I screwed something up, that there was a more appropriate test to use, that one of the first five commenters will correct me, etc. I think we can see some interesting trends here, but it’s no scientific study. Also keep in mind these results don’t necessarily apply to atheists as a whole, just the atheists who read my blog and like to take surveys. Take it with a grain of salt!

Before we get started, here is how I indicated statistical significance on graphs:
* P-value less than 0.05
** P-value less than 0.01
*** P-value less than 0.001
**** P-value less than 0.0001

As always, click the images for a larger, nicer version.
We had 335 males, 135 females, and 7 transgendered readers. This actually surprised me a bit. As you can see, male readers vastly outnumber my female ones. People always ask “Where are the female atheists?” and I usually reply “We’re out here!” I know a lot of female atheists aren’t outspoken enough to want to go to club meetings or be visible, but I would have thought there would be more equal ratios on a blog written by a female atheist that often talks about feminism. My ladies are still drastically outnumbered!

I have a couple of hypotheses.

  • Females hate filling out surveys (unlikely)
  • Male atheists currently do, in fact, outnumber female atheists.
  • Male atheists currently tend to read blogs more than female atheists.
  • My blog is new, so more females haven’t found it yet.
  • This is a better sex ratio than other blogs. Who knows, maybe blogs like Pharyngula and Friendly Atheist have a 9:1 ratio.

Oh, and to my transgendered readers who thanked me for including that option, you’re welcome! Can’t forget you guys. Though I am going to apologize now – most of my analyses look for differences in responses between males and females, and your sample size was too small to work for any of my statistics. Sorry! Please don’t take it personally.
Not surprising that most of my readers fall close to my own age (22). The one bit that surprised me was that I was expecting to have a grand total of two readers over the age of 30. Nothing against my older readers – I just still feel very young and immature in many respects, and I was surprised that so many “adults” would enjoy my blog. So, thank you! There we no difference in the age distribution of males and females.

Now, onto the cool stuff!
I think this result was so cool because it didn’t surprise me. Many studies (and anecdotes) point to females having more fluid sexual orientations and more bisexual tendencies. Our results follow that pretty nicely, with the vast majority of guys considering themselves exclusively heterosexual. Or at least, that’s how they reported their sexual orientation on the survey. Who knows how honest people are even when it’s anonymous.

Oh, and one fun observation: My friends who responded tend to be gayer than my readership as a whole. I think I’m a bad influence on people. Maybe we should see how that chart changes once I get another year to recruit blog.

Favorite open responses:

  • “Science nerd” – The best sexuality ever.

Here readers were allowed to respond with as many answers as they wanted, hence the use of percentage instead of raw numbers. Unsurprisingly, “atheist” was the most common choice. The popular choices seem to be the positive labels – skeptic, humanist, secularist, freethinker – with terms with negative connotations not doing so well. And this supports my opinion that “Bright” comes off as a kind of douchey label that not many non-theists like, since it came in last.

The gender differences here are interesting. Men are significantly more likely to call themselves skeptics, freethinkers, and anti-theists. Anti-theists sort of makes sense, since I think some men are more likely to be aggressive and in your face about things (this does not mean aggressive female anti-theists don’t exist). The other two completely baffle me, though. Women aren’t using skeptic as much, even with the delightful pun of the Skepchicks? And…I have no idea about freethinker. Feel free to come up with your own hypotheses in the comments.

Another interesting thing to note is that men tended to list more labels for themselves than women did. Men used an average of 4.4 labels with a variance of 9.3, and women used an average of 3.7 levels with a variance of 5.7 (p less than 0.01). Of course, this could entirely be from the couple of terms that men like to use a lot more than women.

Favorite open responses:

  • “Awesome”
  • “Belief challenged”
  • “Human” – Two people said this, I liked it!
  • “Depends on my mood and whether I want to be annoying”
  • “Too lazy to be a secular humanist” – Ditto
  • “Shiny?” – I don’t know, are you shiny? Do we have a Twilight vampire amongst us?

Moral of the story: get PZ to link to your blog repeatedly. Seriously though, it seems being linked to by other respected, popular blogs is the best way to get new readers and to retain them. To put this in perspective, Reddit usually gives me as many hits as a Pharyngula or Friendly Atheist plug, but those people don’t tend to stick around. Getting linked to by a great blog is a level of quality control, since that blogger is saying that they like your stuff.

I wasn’t expecting to see any differences here, but there they are! Is this because Pharyngula does have more of a male bias? And what’s up with the ladies liking Google Reader suggestions so much? I have no idea, but thank you, Google Reader!

Favorite open responses:

  • “Girlfriend read occasional blog posts to me” – Aw, oddly sort of cute/cool!
  • “Divine Ordinance, a.k.a. Holy Handgrenade (I don’t remember. Shhh..don’t tell Jen)” – Divine Ordinance is an acceptable answer.

Women like posts on feminism a lot more than men – absolutely shocking! You guys better learn to love them, because they’re not going anywhere, haha. On the flip side, I have no idea why men like posts about me attending local atheist and theist events more than women. Hmmm, maybe because I tend to post a lot of photos when I go…

Other than that, the topics don’t surprise me. Politics is my least favorite topic to blog about since I don’t feel as well read in that area, and apparently my readers don’t love it either (not that they hate it, just that it’s not a favorite topic). Everything else I enjoy blogging about equally, and readers seem to enjoy them equally. Lesson: write about what you like!

Favorite open responses:

  • “Reading about Jen’s boobs” – Got this from multiple people, almost all of them from my friends. Can’t exactly get annoyed, since I am the one writing about my boobs (seriously though, thought this was funny)
  • “The review of those wretched sex scenes were read aloud at a party I threw. Good stuff.” – This is made of ultimate win.

A lot of the free responses said that they loved the blog the way it was and to not feel like I needed to drastically change anything to improve. I didn’t consider this question an ultimatum or some drastic overhaul. I mainly wanted to know if 1. I should increase the attention I put on certain things that I already enjoy doing or 2. if I should start doing things I was thinking about doing. A couple of things:

  • Apparently you guys like my art! Thanks! It’s something I always want to do more of, but a piece of artwork takes something like 6 hours, compared to a short bout of writing. You’ll probably see a lot more art this summer, when I’ll have a lot of free time.
  • On the flip side, you guys don’t care about me making any money. Sadness. A gal’s gotta eat, you know.
  • I’ve avoiding rigid Daily features (like PZ’s Friday Cephalopod) mainly because that takes planning and I’m lazy. However, I may start doing a “List of all the random cool stuff I saw this week but didn’t have enough of an opinion to blog about it” thing. But with a better title. Anyway, I amass awesome links on Google Reader, so it wouldn’t be too hard to post them here.
  • Yeaaah, don’t hold your breath on the videoblogging. I don’t own a webcam/videocamera and I hate watching myself on video. Oh, and apparently Australians have a raging hate-on for videoblogging since their internet service is so shitty, as multiple responders explained. Don’t want to ostracize my readers down under!

Oh, and of course “More sexy pirate outfit photos” did really well, with men wanting them a lot more. Mind blowing. Maybe I can combine that with community building and contests, and make you send me sexy pirate photos of yourself! Much better than photos of me, right? …Right?

I’m saving the final open response suggestions for the next post, since this post is already getting massive enough. What do you guys think of these findings? Have any comments or hypotheses? Do you have any other things you want me to look at (if certain terms are correlated with each other, etc)? Just let me know, and I’ll crunch some more numbers! Data is fun!