Having Daughters Increases Parents’ Identification with the Republican Party

[antigone382]

44. Those are all good questions, but I don't think the study authors are concluding causation.

From the little bit that I read in the article it seems that they are merely reporting a correlation and a whole lot of people who ought to know better are blowing up about it for very silly reasons.

The questions you ask are exactly the kinds of questions that come up in a good academic discussion of a particular topic under investigation. My guess is that some of the things you mentioned were controlled for, else the study would not have been published in a reputable scientific journal (at least that is how the system is supposed to work ideally). As far as adoption, that is a potentially compelling line of inquiry. At the same time, I believe the GSS asked those questions in such a way that they may have unintentionally excluded adopted children, although I cannot be sure as it's been a while since I looked at the wording of GSS questions.

Inquiry and analysis are critical to the scientific process and the points that you bring up are in the spirit of productive intellectual dialogue. I just dislike the chorus of "BS" that I have seen in this thread, and the attacks on the credibility of the researchers without any evidence that their intentions were questionable.