I woudln't say 'prefer' but it's a heavy influence on your view of the world. I think imperative programming fit our biological needs and reflex. We want to see results and effects. Functional programmers are up high in the world of platonic ideals. They delay effects by composing abstract logics and then ask for a result. No newbie wanna suffer that, but no newb want to suffer mutable state bug hunts either.. the learning excitement just shadow this issue for a while, and I bet somewhere deep inside, we're all mathematician in the closet.