A recent study by Yale Law professor Dan M. Kahan indicates that members of the Tea Party are slightly more scientifically literate than the general non-Tea Party affiliated population.

That finding, which was conducted using National Science Foundation standards of literacy, was "surprising" according to Kahan because it seems to defy the stereotype that Tea Party type conservatives form their opinions by “watching cable tv” and reading the “New York Times,” the “Huffington Post,” and “Politico.”

Kahan wrote he was “embarrassed” by his previous view that Tea Party members were not scientifically literate, but that he still manages to maintain an overall “negative” view of the political movement.

“I just no longer assume that the people who happen to hold those values are less likely than people who share my political outlooks to have acquired the sorts of knowledge and dispositions that a decent science comprehension scale measures," he wrote.



The study was conducted as part of Yale Law's Cultural Cognition Project, where scholars study how "cultural values shape public risk perceptions and related policy beliefs."

Read more at the Independent Journal Review