"Propaganda very often works better for the educated than it does for the uneducated." - Chomsky
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Nowhere was this more obvious, recently, than in the survey on vaccine hesitancy among 5 million Americans in the US. A neat inverted bell with the lowest and highest educated at each end, with the mid-wits squatting in the centre screaming for their boosters.
The interesting thing which is not shown in the simplistic infographics is that it collected opinions across 5 months, from Jan-May 2021. During this time the bell reshaped slightly. The effect of several months of increasing propaganda was to slightly reduce the vaccine hesitancy of the most suggestible people - mid-wits and the least educated - whereas among PhDs vaccine hesitancy actually went up until they were the most hesitant group, overtaking the instinct-only builds.
I'd be curious to know how the type of degree (or more to the point the usefulness of the degree) affects this. A PhD in data science and a PhD in gender studies have very different IQ requirements.
As for myself I was pretty undecided on the vax for a long time. It was the attempts to force me to get it that pushed me into the absolute no camp. Any attempts by the "experts" to dictate your life should be fought hard.
For me the interesting part is that it's bimodal, because it tells us about the characteristics of the centre. It's not just simply an IQ curve since in that case you'd be unlikely to get such a strong refusal from high school dropouts compared to masters degrees. The kind most likely to respond to the messaging - which has all been appeals to authority, appeals to morality, appeals to shame and outward perception - seem to be the same kind who place value on academic qualifications and think they reflect a person's value.
PhDs are least susceptible possibly less because of their IQ and more because they're the participants in academia who see it for what it really is, having gone through it all. In that sense I wouldn't be surprised if there's not much difference in signal regardless of the type of PhD, since those possessing bullshit qualifications are well poised to know how worthless they really are.
But more realistically you would probably see a disparity, since the non-STEM, African Dance Therapy type PhDs probably correspond to political affiliation, which does produce a clear signal in propaganda susceptibility.
This influenced my decision to avoid vaccination as well.
Ain't got the coof yet; tested positive but had zero symptoms.