Science, Tech Get Positive Ratings

June 9, 2010

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Data-driven | Media & Entertainment | Pharma & Healthcare | Television

Americans have a largely favorable view of science and technology, according to the results of a new Harris Poll.

Three-quarters of Americans See Tech as ‘Good’
Aspects of American life which get the most positive ratings, defined as those who rate them “excellent” or “pretty good,” are:

  • Science and technology 75%
  • The Constitution 70%
  • The quality of life 66%
  • Colleges and universities 65%
  • TV, movies and entertainment 62%

harris-satisfaction-national-june-2010.jpg

Other items that also receive positive ratings, but from smaller majorities are:

  • Civil rights 58%
  • The standard of living 56%
  • Public safety 56%
  • Equal opportunity 52%

Politics, Economy Get Low Marks
The elements that receive the lowest positive ratings (where large majorities give either only “fair” or “poor” ratings) are:

  • The health care system 33%
  • Public schools 32%
  • The economic system 28%
  • The political system 23%

Other elements that receive low ratings, but better than those above, are:

  • The environment 44%
  • The system of government 43%
  • The legal system 37%

harris-satisfaction-dissatisfied-june-2010.jpg

Republicans See More Opportunity, Better Environment
For many of the 16 elements on the list, the differences between Republicans, Democrats and Independents are small. For example, science and technology gets positive ratings of 78%, 76% and 76%, respectively. However, on a few items, the differences are quite large. For example:

  • Civil rights get better marks from Republicans (70%) than from Democrats (53%).
  • Equality of opportunity also gets more positive marks from Republicans (65%) than from Democrats (47%).
  • The environment gets much better marks from Republicans (61%) than from Democrats (37%); and,
  • The political system is viewed less favorably by Republicans (19%) than by Democrats (33%).

harris-satisfaction-political-party-education-june-2010.jpg

Higher Education Leads to Higher Satisfaction
On almost all of the 16 items, the level of satisfaction is correlated with the level of education. For example, those giving the system of government positive ratings increases from 31% of those with no more than a high school education to 45% of those with some college, 56% of those with a college degree, and 61% of those with post-graduate education. This same gradient, or correlation with education, is true of the Constitution, quality of life, colleges and universities and standard of living, the legal systems, the economic system and the political system.

Tech Brands Dominate Top 10
Technology companies took the first four of the top 10 spots in a recent ranking of the100
most valuable global brands, according to a recent report from MillwardBrown and Optimor.

The “Millward Brown Optimor BrandZ Top100 Most Valuable Global Brands” report names Google as the most valuable brand in 2010. Google’s brand was valued at $114.3 billion, up 14% from 2009. IBM was second at $86 billion, an increase of 30%. In third place, Apple’s brand value grew by 32 percent and is now worth $83 billion. Microsoft was fourth with a value of $76 billion, flat from 2009.

About the Data: This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between May 10-17, 2010 among 2,503 adults (aged 18 and older). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Where appropriate, these data were also weighted to reflect the composition of the adult online population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

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