Having Daughters Increases Parents’ Identification with the Republican Party

[antigone382]

26. Yes, it's very common in most scientific research for studies to have conflicting results.

This is particularly true for the social sciences, where you are almost always dealing with abstract concepts that are subjectively defined. As such, researchers attempt to build a body of literature that reveals the nuances and complexities of various relationships between social factors and personal beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes. The fact that different researchers have found different results does not mean that they are at odds with each other, nor that they are advocating a particular set of beliefs. They are simply refining and improving upon each others' methodologies, and correcting for the possibility that any study's individual results could be due to the results of random chance. Once a particular finding has been replicated several times (for example, a finding that parents of daughters are more likely to be Republican), we can begin to examine why that might be the case (for example that they may favor a "law and order" ideology that makes them feel that their daughters are more protected--just one hypothetical explanation, not something I am claiming).

People are attacking this study really intensely without understanding how social science works. If there are flaws in their methods or if there is a legitimate problem with bias that should be exposed. But at present I see no evidence that they have done anything except mathematical calculations whose results we don't like.