Facebook allows people to run polls (for a fee), for opinion research among all users of the site or specific target groups.
Today I saw the results of a poll asking Who do you most look up to? , and the choice was between scientists, business people, athletes, politicians, and artists. Overall, among 1000 polled Facebook users, scientists ended up in third place.

However, there are some big differences between genders or age groups. Among the 422 females users who responded, scientists ranked second after artists. Men and women disagreed strongly on their top admirable profession: men preferred athletes, women preferred artists, and admired scientists more than athletes.

Four different age groups were polled: 13-17 (313 users), 18-24 (531 users), 25-34 (109 users) and 35-49 (36 users). This reflects on Facebook’s overall age distribution. The site was originally only accessible to college and university students, and that age group still makes up the bulk of the user base. This also means that the education level of these 18-24 year olds is higher than that of the general public in that age group, which probably flourishes the results a bit as far as the assumed “coolness” of the profession of science goes.

Among the handful of 36-49 year-olds, scientists are the people they most look up to. Does the admiration for athletes and artists wear off over time, or are the 36-49 year old Facebook users perhaps all postdocs, professors, teachers, educators, and others who may have been in close contact with the original userbase of college and university students…? They are also the only age group that admires business people more than athletes, but that is probably really an age thing.

Business people are struggling for a decent fourth place in the poll results. (I guess MBA students still think they’re cool.) But absolutely nobody looks up to politicians, who are by far the least admired among all genders and age groups.