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Most of the polls I saw seem to be fairly coarse and (for those that break out people by education) only break out people by whether they completed college, or postgrad, or none.

Are there any good polls available that break out the party preference (any which way possible, either presidential voting or otherwise) by college major/concentration?

I'm mostly curious as to what the differences are between STEM majors, social sciences, or law degrees and medical degrees.

NOTES:

  • This is mostly about USA, though I wouldn't reject a good answer pertaining to other countries.

  • I would prefer high quality poll(s) - anything Nate Silver would put in a nice corner instead of naughty corner is how I judge.

  • I'm mostly looking for coarse political alignments (D or R) but would definitely love to see polls delving into finer details on policy positions on major stuff.

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  • Finding a study broken down by college degree does seem to be pretty challenging, however, I did find a study that indicates a GOP tilt specifically for economics majors http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/07/studying-economics-in-col_n_603180.html. Commented Dec 26, 2012 at 15:10
  • @MichaelKingsmill - for some reason your link gives a 404 error... and googling for it instead found [this], which was surely worth asking my question for
    – user4012
    Commented Dec 26, 2012 at 18:29

1 Answer 1

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  • I also came across that Huffington Post article that Michael linked.

    The article suggests that economics majors tend to be more republican:

    The number of economics courses completed by the graduates of these... schools significantly decreases the likelihood that a person does not join a political party and the likelihood of joining the Democratic party, while the number of economics courses is positively related to the likelihood of joining the Republican party. For example, taking five economics courses is associated with an eight percent decrease in the likelihood of joining the Democratic party and more than a 10 percent higher chance of joining the Republican party.

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    Would you mind summarizing either one for a completeness sake? This is preferredf on SE sites, both so the answer is self contained and due to link rot
    – user4012
    Commented Dec 28, 2012 at 22:38

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