In between coming back from a visit to the ANZCIES conference in Coffs Harbour (and a bit of scuba diving; I’ll post some pictures on my website soon) and getting ready for leaving to the US, I found a small article on the Dutch Scienceguide.
The Free University of Amsterdam recently held a survey on the image of various academic disciplines. They surveyed young people between 11 and 24. The results? 21% of them thought of Astrology as a very scientific discipline, while only 12% and 9% thought of Political Science resp. Public Policy/Public Admin as a scientific discipline. Astronomy and Chemistry score the highest with 42 and 65%. History was seen as scientific by only 17%. The field of Anthropology wasn’t well known by the youngsters: 16% did not have any opinion on this discipline.
So, what’s wrong with the image of Political Science? Or is it the young people?