Are Democrats more likely to believe Astrology is a science?

Question

In an answer on politics.SE, a Northwestern University study was highlighted, whose main findings included:

• more Democrats than Republicans think astrology is scientific

  Using Fisher’s Exact Test, conservative Republicans are significantly more likely than other groups combined to reject astrology as not scientific (p<.0005). The same is true of conservatives compared to non-conservatives (p<.0005) and Republicans compared to non-Republicans (p<.0005). Likewise, Democrats are less likely to reject astrology as unscientific than others (p<.0005).

• fewer Democrats than Republicans think the earth revolves around the sun.

  ...in 2012 a majority of Democrats (51.4%) could not correctly answer both that the earth revolves around the Sun and that this takes a year. Republicans fare a bit better, with only 37.9% failing to get both correct.

One thing that does look a little dubious is that that this study was penned by a law professor. I'm also unsure if it has been published in a peer-review venue.

Are the results of this study consistent with other similar studies on such matters?

Answer 1

Independently, Pew has discovered that a greater percentage of Democrats believe in astrology than Republicans:

They include details on their survey methods. They did provide a definition of astrology in the survey: "that the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives". This may rule out people confusing astronomy and astrology.

To summarize, this chart depicts that their findings were that 31% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans believe in astrology.

There may be good reason to question the significance of these findings, though. In Europe, as in the US, there is considerable belief in astrology. In a multivariate analysis, it was found that people do vary considerably in their answers based on what definition they are given, and that people are likely to confuse astrology and astronomy and likely to rank astrology as more scientific than horoscopes. (What Makes Some People Think Astrology Is Scientific? - Nick Allum)

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However, the bit about heliocentrism seems at odds with what I have seen before. This is just one study, but it concludes that political conservatism is a predictor of disbelief in Earth Science: Do Americans Believe Modern Earth Science? - Allan Mazur. In the table on predicting factors, it notes a small predictive effect (may not be statistically significant) from political conservatism for disbelief in heliocentrism.

Answer 2

The linked paper was written to

challenge two of the most common assumptions of political psychology: (1) that a belief in astrology is such a good indicator of conservatism that it is appropriate to use as a measure of conservatism itself; and (2) that Republicans and conservatives tend to hold views opposing science.

On the second point about Republicans opposing science, the focus on astrology seems a bit cherry picked, as roughly 60% of Republicans believe humans were created as-is less than 10,000 years ago (Democrats: 38%), or roughly 81% of Democrats vs 49% of Republicans think there is solid evidence the earth is getting warmer, so I might regard the results with a bit of skepticism.

But there are other Pew surveys (besides the 2009 one posted in the other answer) that address astrology and related new age beliefs. This survey from December 2017 shows Democrats have a higher belief in astrology (32%) compared to Republicans (24%).

(in percent)
                      Believe spiritual energy   Believe in   Believe in      Believe in
                      can be located             psychics     reincarnation   astrology
                      in physical things 
Republican/lean Rep.      34                        39             26             24
Democrat/lean Dem.        47                        41             38             32

Closing paragraph also calls out Democrats specifically:

Also, adults under age 65, those who have not graduated from college, racial and ethnic minorities, and Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are more likely than others to hold to at least one New Age belief.