Abstract
This chapter considers the period 1972–2012, using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to see how support for space program funding correlated with support for other government programs and with variables describing respondents’ age, social class, occupation, education, and political ideology. Arguably the highest quality, long-duration scientific opinion research study carried out in the United States, the GSS was funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and from 1973 onward carried a standard item measuring public support. Statistical factor analysis of public attitudes toward 18 areas of government funding places the space program in a cluster of four programs including more general scientific research and two kinds of transportation-related infrastructure, but separate from a cluster of five programs including education and environmental programs which one might have thought would be related to space. Not surprisingly, respondents with highly technical occupations and higher levels of education are more favorable to space funding, but even among them the balance of opinion is against increased funding for spaceflight development.
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Bainbridge, W.S. (2015). The General Social Survey. In: The Meaning and Value of Spaceflight. Space and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07878-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07878-6_3
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