11% of Americans can't find the USA on a map - Page 3

Zero-Tau · November 21, 2002, 12:23

Quote:

Originally posted by N. Machiavelli

All 33 of them.

Read the survey results details, they chose a massive sample size of 300 people from the selected countries.

Actually, it says "A total of 300 interviews were conducted in each country except the U.S.; in the U.S. nearly 500 interviews were conducted with 18-to 24-year-olds". So that'd be 500 people.

Dom Pedro II · November 21, 2002, 12:26

I wonder what percentage of these people when shown the world map asked "What's that?"

N. Machiavelli · November 21, 2002, 12:27

My bad. Still, 1000 is usually the minimum sample size for these types of surveys. It's still half that in the US. It's even lower in other countries, but I cannot seem to find data on the locations of the sample size.

Jack_www · November 21, 2002, 12:37

That is really sad to see that American youth are that stupid. I took the survey on the site and got every question right, it was so easy. All you have to do is listen to the news and you would know were most of these countries are.

Sinapus · November 21, 2002, 12:53

"11% of Americans can't find the USA on a map"

Let's see... the original survey was of 18-25 year olds, 11% of the people surveyed couldn't find the USA on a map... I would say it looks like some topic thread creators can't read a study correctly. 18-25 yr olds != all Americans.

Oh, and Ming? I must quibble slightly: making the survey in a richer neighborhood won't necessarily help. When I was a senior in high school in suburbia I was the only one in the class who could find/name all 50 US states and their capitals and had to help my classmates finish their maps. (It was a "first-day-of-class" assignment, and not supposed to be very difficult. Which was just sad.)

Sinapus · November 21, 2002, 12:56

Quote:

Originally posted by Jack_www
That is really sad to see that American youth are that stupid. I took the survey on the site and got every question right, it was so easy. All you have to do is listen to the news and you would know were most of these countries are.

I think the only time I ever got confused was in the early 90s when the Soviet Union's breakup cause map changes all over the place. Boy am I glad I never worked for Rand-McNally.

(Actually, there are probably some small nations I can't find. But then, that's what the index on an atlas is for... same with search engines.)

centrifuge · November 21, 2002, 12:57

Well obviously, this is not representative of the entire population. I just took the quiz and only missed the question about religions... but wow, the results make me scared for the future of this world

Kontiki · November 21, 2002, 13:47

I'm not sure the correct answer to the religion question is Christianity. Some people/institutions consider the majority of Chinese to be non-religious, even though almost all are at least tacitly Buddhist. Still, I could be wrong and Christianity does have more followers, but I have seen the omissions for Buddhism before.

Pekka · November 21, 2002, 13:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Richelieu

I had the same results! Must be a northern thing.

Must be, because I got the same result...

MarkG · November 21, 2002, 14:10

lots of talk but i dont see many our americans post their results

monkspider · November 21, 2002, 14:11

That was a startlingly easy quiz actually, the only question I missed was the El Nino one.

Hurricane · November 21, 2002, 14:40

Quote:

Originally posted by Sinapus
"11% of Americans can't find the USA on a map"

Let's see... the original survey was of 18-25 year olds, 11% of the people surveyed couldn't find the USA on a map... I would say it looks like some topic thread creators can't read a study correctly. 18-25 yr olds != all Americans.

"11% of a maybe not so random sample of 300 18-25 year old Americans can't find the USA on a map" would not just have the same sting as a thread topic.

And just for the record, I got all the questions right.

Sava · November 21, 2002, 14:46

I maintain my position that the overwhelmingly vast majority of these polls are stupid. Until you poll at least a million people, I'm not taking you seriously. Even then, if you poll a million of the same demographic, you will probably get the same result. For example, I could out and poll a million Democrats and come up with results like "98% of people are in favor of impeaching Bush". Those results would be just plain dumb and would not reflect the attitude of the entire country. Good polls are the ones that poll specific questions to people within a certain demographic. Like, polling Civilization fans whether or not they like the new multiplayer. It's just plain stupid to try and determine the mood, intelligence, political views, or attitudes of 300 million people based upon the results of a 1,000 person poll. Believing in those results would also be wrong.

rah · November 21, 2002, 14:47

20 out of 20. Thanks for who posted Christianity. (I probably wouldn't have picked it normally.) But even so, it would have been 19 out of 20.

So there Mark

rah · November 21, 2002, 14:51

Quote:

Originally posted by Sava
It's just plain stupid to try and determine the mood, intelligence, political views, or attitudes of 300 million people based upon the results of a 1,000 person poll. Believing in those results would also be wrong.

Pure ignorance. (not surprising). 1,000 people is a little shy of what you need but if selected properly, will get you within +- 5% with a high degree of confidence.

Which is why I'm always interested in seeing the sampling plan.

orange · November 21, 2002, 14:52

Maybe this is part of the reason...

In my college Geog120 class (basic political/economic geography survey course) my TA is teaching about the Middle East...

TA: "Yemen...Oman...and the UAE"
Student1: "What's the UAE"
TA: "The UAE stands for United Arab Emirates. Basically it's a bunch of local kings, or Emirs, that own land and jointly rule the nation."
(so far so good...)
Student2: "Kinda like Canada"
Me: :snicker snicker snicker:
TA: "Yes, a lot like Canada" [/dead serious]
Me:

Pekka · November 21, 2002, 14:52

These questions only measure how much you follow the news..

orange · November 21, 2002, 15:08

Quote:

Originally posted by rah
Pure ignorance. (not surprising). 1,000 people is a little shy of what you need but if selected properly, will get you within +- 5% with a high degree of confidence.

Which is why I'm always interested in seeing the sampling plan.

IIRC - this is how they get TV ratings. I think it's only 128 people though...or maybe 1280? Can't remember...

TheBirdMan · November 21, 2002, 15:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Winston

Bah! That totals much more than 100%, so this survey is obviously a scam.

I have not read the whole thread - but you Winston...... How could you post this.

Edit 5 minutes later.

Now I have. And I think I will (wish to) take Winstons post as a provocation.

OMG (which I do not believe in). I hope this obvious lack of simple knowledge among people, living in what I supposed to be highly educated and civilized nations is nothing but a fake.

Dauphin · November 21, 2002, 15:16

20/20.

Shame my eyesight test ain't as good.

Dauphin · November 21, 2002, 15:22

Quote:

Originally posted by orange

IIRC - this is how they get TV ratings. I think it's only 128 people though...or maybe 1280? Can't remember...

Nationwide?

Or local stations?

In the UK about 5,000 households which is around 12,000 people are included in the sample for TV ratings.

Arrian · November 21, 2002, 15:36

Quote:

Originally posted by orange
Maybe this is part of the reason...

In my college Geog120 class (basic political/economic geography survey course) my TA is teaching about the Middle East...

TA: "Yemen...Oman...and the UAE"
Student1: "What's the UAE"
TA: "The UAE stands for United Arab Emirates. Basically it's a bunch of local kings, or Emirs, that own land and jointly rule the nation."
(so far so good...)
Student2: "Kinda like Canada"
Me: :snicker snicker snicker:
TA: "Yes, a lot like Canada" [/dead serious]
Me:

You gotta be ****ing kidding me. Are you SURE that you didn't experience a temporary malfunction of your sarcasm detector?

-Arrian

GePap · November 21, 2002, 15:44

Why must peole be so hung up that when a survey like this comes out, every jingo jumps on it? Every survey like this they have done for years shows the utter lack of gerographic knowledge in the US. So get over it: we are a self-selected bunch of people far more likely to know any of these questions that the average citizen of the same age group. Tkae this survey to a non-civ chatroom and see the results thre, if you trully discount it. And then be proved wrong.

The good thing is that it shows that Americans are not more stupid that anyone, simply living with an education system that places no emphasis on geography.

MarkG · November 21, 2002, 15:46

Quote:

20 out of 20.

@ rah

Shi Huangdi · November 21, 2002, 15:57

20 out of 20, and I took the quiz before reading any posts being the original post of the thread starter.

As for what party the 11% who can't find our country on a map belong to, I very much doubt they vote at all for anyone.......

Dom Pedro II · November 21, 2002, 16:01

Now THAT I can agree with.

Datajack Franit · November 21, 2002, 16:03

19 out of 20.. damn muslims, I expected you to be much more that that!

btw, wonder how many americans thought US population was above 1 billion

SpencerH · November 21, 2002, 16:07

20/20

But I've never attended any american schools

Dis · November 21, 2002, 16:21

More importantly why do most americans need to know useless geography?

Their only job is to work in a some shithole factory or in a fast food restaurant.

.

Dauphin · November 21, 2002, 16:25

What are they gonna do if they can't figure out the directions to the factory for the interview due to poor geographical skills?