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I find this headline to be misleading. I'm sure humanity could be wiped out within 15 years. There is some non-zero chance that a gamma-ray burst in the Milky W

by lacker 7y ago

I find this headline to be misleading. I'm sure humanity could be wiped out within 15 years. There is some non-zero chance that a gamma-ray burst in the Milky Way wipes out life on Earth. But really these people are saying it is likely. Over the next 10-15 years, 29% of all voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that the earth will become uninhabitable and humanity will be wiped out. I don't think 29% of voters actually believe this. I think that nowadays, people frequently answer polls according to the emotional stance they would like to support, rather than the side of it they view to be factually correct.

mjw1007 7y ago
I'm not sure it's a matter of emotional stance. It could just be that many people view the opportunity to answer a poll as a means to an end, and don't feel any obligation to be truthful. In that case for some proportion of the respondents the poll question is equivalent to "would you like to take the opportunity to ask people to take climate change more seriously?". (This is probably particularly true in cases where the response option includes some vague undefined term like "somewhat likely", so that it's hard for selecting that option to be an outright lie.)
non-entity 7y ago
Also, a lot of polls seem to lead users with extreme. Offhand, I'm not sure of the legitimacy of this site or its polls (it's very self promotional, with my attention immediately drawn to this guy's book), but I'm sure many people have seen screenshots of campaign email polls where, say, you're asked if you support Candidate Y and your choices are: - Yes I support candidate Y - No, I support commies, nazis, etc. Not saying that's what this poll is, but like I noted this website does not seem overly trustworthy. Also doesn't 29% mean 29% of this site's audience who replied to the poll as opposed of all voters

by lacker 7y ago

mjw1007 7y ago

I'm not sure it's a matter of emotional stance. It could just be that many people view the opportunity to answer a poll as a means to an end, and don't feel any obligation to be truthful. In that case for some proportion of the respondents the poll question is equivalent to "would you like to take the opportunity to ask people to take climate change more seriously?". (This is probably particularly true in cases where the response option includes some vague undefined term like "somewhat likely", so that it's hard for selecting that option to be an outright lie.)

non-entity 7y ago

Also, a lot of polls seem to lead users with extreme. Offhand, I'm not sure of the legitimacy of this site or its polls (it's very self promotional, with my attention immediately drawn to this guy's book), but I'm sure many people have seen screenshots of campaign email polls where, say, you're asked if you support Candidate Y and your choices are: - Yes I support candidate Y - No, I support commies, nazis, etc. Not saying that's what this poll is, but like I noted this website does not seem overly trustworthy. Also doesn't 29% mean 29% of this site's audience who replied to the poll as opposed of all voters