[psychometry]

https://aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/pdf/265341/vaccine-hesitan...

"State of residence" was a predictor in their linear model. A person's state (and its government) will probably affect the outcome variable to some extend, so it's not really surprising that it might be retained as a significant term. However, I find it hard to believe it's so important. I wonder if that predictor is simply confounded with some unobserved variable relating to methods of surveying that differed by state.

[adamrezich]

why are people so quick to wish away the concept of state lines? if there were no (or less) obviously visible state lines in the data, and everything was more of a gradient, I would be immensely surprised.

[disgruntledphd2]

Sure, but one wouldn't imagine them to be so sharp. It's probably an artifact of the aggregation up to county level.