Survey Poll: Are Native Texans more inclined to believe in Texas exceptionalism than non-natives?

Participation Assignment #1: Polling survey. Below is a breakdown of the survey, the results, and conclusions.

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Are you a Native Texan?  Y    /     N  (Circle one)

Directions: Please describe how much you agree with the following statements by circling one of the possibilities below. 

1) If Texas could secede from the United State, it has enough resources to be its' own Country.

Strongly-Disagree          Disagree         Neither Agree/Disagree        Agree       Strongly Agree

2) Texas governmental decisions have little influence on the rest of the Country. 

Strongly-Disagree          Disagree         Neither Agree/Disagree        Agree       Strongly Agree

3) Texas has the best food in the Country.

Strongly-Disagree          Disagree         Neither Agree/Disagree        Agree       Strongly Agree

All questions were answered using a 5 point likert scale, and were given numerical quantities for the analysis; Strongly Disagree being 1 and Strongly agree equal to a 5, except for question two in which the point values are reversed. My assumption was that higher scores reflect higher opinions of Texas in general. 

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Here is the data breakdown using Minitab Analytical software: (You'll learn how to do this if you take Intro-Stats here at ACC) 

Question 1:  If Texas could secede from the United State, it has enough resources to be its' own Country.

Native Texan average: 2.714

Non-native average: 3.667

Question 2:  Texas governmental decisions have little influence on the rest of the Country. 

Native Texan average: 3.357

Non-native average: 3.333

Question 3:  Texas has the best food in the Country. 

Native Texan average: 3.286

Non-native average: 3.111

Total Averages of all scores

Native Texan average: 3.12

Non-Native Average: 3.37

***One participants information was thrown out. It looked mischievously like an outlier, in which all answers were marked straight through as Disagree. I admit here that the sample was not representative of Texas as a whole, and is at best classified as a convenience sample. Extreme caution is recommended when making any inferences about this data.

Conclusion: I ran independent T-tests comparing the groups for each question. There was only one statistically significant result, and it was not what I expected! You may be able to guess from the data provided, but strangely Non-natives had stronger faith that Texas had the resources to secede from the Country than Natives!

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