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Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists

#4
As an Engineer, I've been avoiding this conclusion for a while. Chalked it up to faulty conclusions from liberal arts majors jealous of funding cuts or a lack thereof (/s).

But this conversation is becoming more and more prevalent. Perhaps STEAM education (http://stemtosteam.org/) and not a purely focussed STEM education is the answer

Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists

#9
Survey data indicates that engineering faculty at universities are far more likely to be conservative than people with other degrees, and far more likely to be religious. They are seven times as likely to be both religious and conservative as social scientists.

That's surprising to me. I'd like to know where they got that data, and look more into it. How likely are they to be conservative and religious than people with no degrees?

Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists

#10
If their explanation is correct then it has implications for how engineers should be trained.

E.g. that it would be beneficial to provide a more well rounded education that goes beyond the "engineering mindset" and exposes them to "messier" situations and means to deal with those.

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