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Post by theropod on Jun 1, 2015 16:54:32 GMT 5
This honestly shocked me:   According to the study, the median was almost 3000km off, and those who could not correctly identify the country were more likely to advocate going to war there! They also found that members of military households were not noticeably more likely to know where Ukraine is. Data from here: www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/07/the-less-americans-know-about-ukraines-location-the-more-they-want-u-s-to-intervene/It’s certainly possible to make compilation of dumb answers to easy questions that is not necessarily representative of the whole population (we all probably know those), but this was an actual, objective survey with a considerable sample size (n=2066). And it would appear that a considerable percentage of Americans believe Ukraine is in the Americas, or Africa, or even Australia. 18 of those people even clicked on their own country! It also looks as if almost as many as those who got it right clicked on the black sea instead. And that’s not just the poorly educated part of the population, college graduates were not much better either (21% correct). I find that intensely worrying. Not just the ignorance of where the largest country in Europe, and one that has been continuously in the news, is located despite claiming to be informed, but the apparent correlation of ignorance with an agressive foreign policy. By comparison, there may be a couple of countries in Africa and south-east Asia that I could not identify beyond their general region, but I’m neither claiming to be informed about them, nor proposing to invade them, nor are they dominating the headlines since over a year. Attachments:
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Post by creature386 on Jun 1, 2015 20:06:09 GMT 5
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Post by theropod on Jun 1, 2015 21:05:34 GMT 5
It’s strange that over 80% of the US population got "The continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move" right, considering that about 40% of them are creationists and should thus be opposed to the notion of anything lasting millions of years.
And how come so few people got the size of electrons right? Even by sheer chance the results would have had to be better than that, not to mention it’s part of middle school curricula that electrons are a component of atoms.
Of course the big bang should be known, but denying it is likely founded in religious fanaticism, just like evolution.
Even tough it’s dumb, I think I can understand the reasons for people failing on "All radioactivity is man-made" best.
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Post by creature386 on Jun 1, 2015 22:52:38 GMT 5
To be fair, the question was only about the ancestors of humans and maybe some of them accept an old Earth and something superficially similar to evolution as long as humans remain something special.
Even though I admit that my theory is weak, given that almost half of Americans believe in a young Earth.
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Post by theropod on Jun 2, 2015 0:07:38 GMT 5
If half of all americans believe in a young earth, that’s even worse (and makes it even stranger that over 80% manage to believe in tectonic processes taking place over millions of year). I can’t imagine how someone could accept evolution in general but not that humans are a result of it, but then, the minds of the crazy are sometimes hard to understand…
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Post by creature386 on Jun 2, 2015 0:43:48 GMT 5
I know thought about it and it is maybe really sampling bias that produces such different results. Look at this: ncse.com/rncse/30/3/americans-scientific-knowledge-beliefs-human-evolution-year-Apparently, only 18% of all Americans believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, but 39% believe that God created the Earth and the first two people within the last 10,000 years. The only way such a result is possible is sampling bias. |
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Post by theropod on Jun 2, 2015 1:27:03 GMT 5
But the samples were not THAT different (~13%, 600 vs 531).
Lol, only 40% think that "dinosaurs lived at the same time as people". Or it is "a whopping 40%"? Can’t decide, either way it doesn’t look good.
Not that it would surprise me to see people stupid enough to say that evolution lacks strong factual evidence or that the earth was created in 6 days contradicting themselves.
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Post by creature386 on Jun 2, 2015 1:32:11 GMT 5
I am not talking about the different sizes. I rather assumed that most people did not answer two questions.
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Post by theropod on Jun 2, 2015 11:00:10 GMT 5
You're right.
I guess they were most likely carried out in different parts of the country then.
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drone
Junior Member Rank 1
Posts: 53 
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Post by drone on Jun 7, 2015 10:36:14 GMT 5
People actually thought that the first one is a chimpanzee! Even if it is, there aren't "millions" of them.  |
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Post by creature386 on Jun 7, 2015 13:48:40 GMT 5
I'm not sure if this is actually stupidity or just a straw man argument to make evolution look dumber than it is.
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Post by theropod on Jun 10, 2015 12:27:13 GMT 5
The sad thing is actually that some people who know nothing about evolution are going to see stuff like that and fall for it, as well as the anti-mainsteam-victim position that creationists like to pretend they are in (of course they are victims, but only of genetics and bad upbringing, which made them stupid enough to become creationists).
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Deathadder
Junior Member
aspiring paleontologist. theropod enthusiast.
Posts: 240
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Post by Deathadder on Jun 10, 2015 15:08:26 GMT 5
I don't really like how you guys just sit here and bash the general public with all these threads because they are not up to your standards. Yes, some of that stuff they should no but some stuff like advanced science or dinosaurs they shouldn't be forced to know this. I am not arguing, just stating my opinion.
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Post by theropod on Jun 10, 2015 15:17:14 GMT 5
I don't really like how you guys just sit here and bash the general public with all these threads because they are not up to your standards. Yes, some of that stuff they should no but some stuff like advanced science or dinosaurs they shouldn't be forced to know this. I am not arguing, just stating my opinion. I'm not expecting the general public to know advanced palaeontology, or anyy palaeontology for that matter. But I'm right to expect a more substantial portion than 16% to know the location of Ukraine, or to expect people to know that electrons are smaller than atoms, or that the earth orbits the sun, not thhe reverse etc. Science journalists are a different thing obviously. They get paid to accurately report scientific findings to the public, so I have the right to expect them to get it right most of the time, even if I don't expect them zo practice the slightest bit of science themselves. They haave an obligation to inform tje general piblic accurately. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2015 15:54:19 GMT 5
I don't really like how you guys just sit here and bash the general public with all these threads because they are not up to your standards. Yes, some of that stuff they should no but some stuff like advanced science or dinosaurs they shouldn't be forced to know this. I am not arguing, just stating my opinion. This isn't advanced science, it's the public lacking even the basic general knowledge of the world. Come on, you have to admit that the notion that only a mere ~16% of the US population being able to pinpoint the location of a country that is featured prominently in the news is quite facepalm-worthy. Ukraine is that large country just north of the Black Sea. I could clearly point it out on that map. Yet, ~84% of US-Americans can't do it right. Heck, some of them even thought Ukraine was in North America!
Here's something to put this case of lack of knowledge in perspective: "the median respondent was about 1,800 miles off — roughly the distance from Chicago to Los Angeles — locating Ukraine somewhere in an area bordered by Portugal on the west, Sudan on the south, Kazakhstan on the east, and Finland on the north." |
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