I was a bit surprised by these data, Political Self-characterization of U.S. Medical Students:
Among these medical students, 5% self-characterized as politically very conservative, 21% conservative, 33% moderate, 31% liberal, and 9% as very liberal." Being male, white, Protestant, intending to specialize in Surgery or anesthesiology/pathology/radiology, or currently or previously being married significantly... increased the likelihood that a student self-identified as very conservative or conservative. Disagreement or strong disagreement with the statements, "I'm glad I chose to become a physician" and "Access to care is a fundamental human right," were also both associated with being very conservative or conservative. Being more liberal was reported by blacks and Hispanics; those intending to become ob-gyns, psychiatrists, and pediatric subspecialists; and atheists, Jews, and adherents of eastern religions.
Below are demographic breakdowns.
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Why the surprise? Its my anecdotal impression from being in the medical field that doctors tend to be liberals, though some of the liberals also support Republicans in elections based on the single issue of taxes. What was/is your impression?
I think he expected doctors to be more liberal than they appeared to be here.
I think it depends on openness. People in highly "sensing" oriented fields, like medicine and engineering, tend to be more conservative (on the social issues) than people in highly "intuitive" oriented fields, like the arts and sciences.
That being said though, this is "liberal" on self-defined characteristics (which could be primarily social or economic liberalism, depending on how the person self-defines himself), and if blacks and hispanics are self-reported as "liberal" on this, it's likely that they're primarily self-reporting themselves as "liberal" on the economic issues (since blacks and hispanics trend towards social conservatism) - although SWPL whites tend to self-define themselves as liberal/conservative based on social issues
According to this study, 65% of conservative U.S. medical students agree that access to health care is a fundamental human right.
i thought they'd be more conservative.
These numbers fit my experience in a mid-ranked U.S. medical school. I was definitely on the very conservative end of the school's political spectrum.
I do wonder if political views change once these new physicians enter their extended period of low-wage slavery (aka residency and fellowship). It's a lot easier to be chipper about all that educational debt and to think one won't need much money while one is still accumulating said debt in medical school and doesn't yet have to pay it back. Med students are also much less likely to be taking q3 overnight call or suffering frontline abuse from attendings and patients than their slightly more senior colleagues.
lol @ intending to specialize in Surgery or anesthesiology or radiology at first-year orientation. Those are the sorts of people who end up self-reporting as "conservative" - really? Even turd-skinned indians are more self-aware than that.
"People in highly "sensing" oriented fields, like medicine and engineering, tend to be more conservative (on the social issues) than people in highly "intuitive" oriented fields, like the arts and sciences."
This was my experience with American engineers when I was working in the Gulf of Mexico.
Not the same when I was working with Brazilians though.
Judging by the BMJ's public blogs, British doctors are probably also 'pinkos' in Razib's world ;-)
It is appalling to me that any human being, let alone any physician can disagree with the concept that access to health care is a fundamental right. I truly just can't get my head around it.
Rather old news.
How many of them agree that they should work at minimum wage in order to cheaply provide that "fundamental human right"?
They may be similar to moderates and liberals in that respect.
I think that there are fewer economically-motivated medical students these days. It isn't that good a deal any more. It never was the most lucrative place for a talented, ambitious, and hard-working individual, but the prestige factor was enormous.
The enormous loans are a result if conservativism (along with med school monopoly pricing) rather than of liberalism, but when the rubber hits the road MDs might tend to blame high taxes for their problems rather than lack of public support. Education financing is a national scandal without much of a constituency.