Engineers of Jihad

Sounds like a good idea for a calendar.

No less than Oxford University has produced a study, "Engineers of Jihad", that asserts that Engineers are posessed of minds that tend toward "monism" and "simplism." (Is the latter even a word?). We tend toward the right, politically, and pine for a rational world where, if everyone just did the right thing, everything would be all right.

From EE Times ('Jihad' study roils engineering, By Sheila Riley, March 7):

Islamic terrorists are more likely to be engineers than members of any other profession--and not because engineers possess superior technological skills. That's the conclusion of a controversial Oxford University study that has the engineering community buzzing.

The study's disturbing finding blames what it calls a universal engineering mindset [We are Borg!], which it describes as one drawn to structure and rules plus clear, single solutions to complex problems. When coupled with the harsh realities of life in many Islamic countries, terrorism can be the result, the study says.

[...]

Earlier research done in the United States and Canada backs up one element of the British findings: that engineers incline toward more-conservative political and religious thought than those in other professions. The U.S. study was done in 1984 at the request of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and looked at college instructors; the Canadian study, done in 1999, drew the same conclusion.

The study also claims that Electrical Engineers have "high social status." The whole thing must be flawed.