POLITICAL LEANINGS AND CHOICE OF VEHICLES Essays - Bumper Sticker

Running head: POLITICAL LEANINGS AND CHOICE OF VEHICLES1 Political Leanings and Choice of Vehicles Are Cars, Trucks and SUVs Democrats or Republicans Jonathon McNeil Middle Tennessee State University Running Head:Political Leanings and Choice of Vehicles2 Abstract It might be argued that liberals drive small vehicles in an effort to save the planet, from their belief in global warming. Many conservatives do not believe that scientific evidence supports global warming as a whole and hence are not as likely to buy and drive small vehicles. You are to test this hypothesis, that liberals (democrats) drive small cars and conservatives (republicans) drive larger cars. Go to parking lots and look for cars with political stickers that suggest whether they are liberal/democrat or conservative/republican. Note also whether the vehicle is small or large. You will have to operationally define small and large. Collect data for 24 liberals/democrats and 24 conservatives/republicans. Running Head: Political Leanings and Choice of Vehicles3 Introduction: I went into the Walmart parking lot off of South Rutherford Boulevard in Murfreesboro and observed 48 vehicles in total. I observed 24 vehicles that were determined to be liberal bumper stickers the other 24 vehicles were determined to be trucks and SUVs as having conservative bumper stickers. Throughout my research I have observed bumper stickers that were ambiguous stated I love dogs and other stickers stated Peace, love and happiness and Show support for the NRA which I could not determine whether the individuals bumper stickers to be Democrat or Republican. I spent a total of three hours walking in each parking lot collecting data such as vehicle information and whether the vehicle has a bumper sticker. One of the weaknesses with my research is observing bumper stickers and coming to a final determination whether the vehicle is a Democrat or a Republican. The factual data based solely on observation is limited to my interpretation of the bumper stickers. Hypothesis: Based on the data I have collected using the significance of .033 and one degree of freedom. Df= n-1 using two different population studies in this sample cars and politics. The cutoff from the Chi Square table is 4.547 for one degree of freedom .05 by using the Chi Square table and my value on the Pearson Chi Square model based on the data .033 there was a high degree of significance the data produced that SUVS and trucks that are conservatives and cars and small cars are democrats. Running Head: Political Leanings and Choice of Vehicles4 Method: Population 1: Cars was available and used to determine if the population is associated with being or not being liberal or conservative. Population 2: Politics category used to determine whether trucks, cars, and SUVs are branded on their bumper sticker Conservative or Democrat. For example: The value n are the number of cars, SUVs and trucks. Participants: The research is based solely on observation and recording of factual data. Apparatus: Pen and a paper was provided along with a clipboard to count the number of vehicles in a parking lot of Walmart and count the number of bumper stickers on a vehicle to tally up. Procedure: Observing 24 cars that were deemed liberal and 24 Trucks and SUVS were republican. Results: The Chi Square was performed and the result has a high degree of significance .033. Discussion: To make a conclusion about the hypothesis with 95% confidence, the value labeled Asymp. Sig. (which is the p-value of the Chi-Square statistic) should be less than .05 (which is the alpha level associated with a 95% confidence level). By researching the data allows me to assess whether the association seen between cars, trucks and SUVs in a particular sample is likely to represent an actual relationship between political leanings between democrats and conservatives choice in a population.