8 ms·
Your Brain Lies to You
- pavelludiq 18y ago18% of americans think the sun revolves around the earth? FSM save us
- bouncingsoul 18y agoSimilar results for Germany and Great Britain: Probing a more universal measure of knowledge, Gallup also asked the following basic science question, which has been used to indicate the level of public knowledge in two European countries in recent years: "As far as you know, does the earth revolve around the sun or does the sun revolve around the earth?" In the new poll, about four out of five Americans (79%) correctly respond that the earth revolves around the sun, while 18% say it is the other way around. These results are comparable to those found in Germany when a similar question was asked there in 1996; in response to that poll, 74% of Germans gave the correct answer, while 16% thought the sun revolved around the earth, and 10% said they didn't know. When the question was asked in Great Britain that same year, 67% answered correctly, 19% answered incorrectly, and 14% didn't know. http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/New-Poll-Gauges-Americans-General-Knowledge-Levels.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/New-Poll-Gauges-Americans-Ge...
- jpeterson 18y agoWhat's going on here? Is it really the case that 18% of the populace has not been exposed to the idea of heliocentricity, or that they have but choose not to believe it? I am truly flabbergasted by this statistic.
- Goronmon 18y agoI've always wondered how much of that is due to poor reading comprehension and bad problem solving skills. In other words, simply that people know the answer but can't match up that knowledge with the question being asked.
- Retric 18y agoDon't forget people also lie.
- hugh 18y agoI always assume that 12% of people deliberately give the wrong answer to stupid questions from pollsters.
- jauco 18y agoand don't forget that 32% of the statistics is made up on the spot.
- DanielBMarkham 18y ago86.7% of which is usually inaccurate
- mynameishere 18y agoThe staff of PUP interviewed 23 Harvard graduates, alumni and faculty, asking each “Why do we have seasons?”...The PUP interviewers found that 21 of the 23 interviewed could not explain why we have seasons, a topic that is taught repeatedly in school http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryCmaps/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.htm http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryCmaps/... I don't find it strange or alarming. No more than the fact that a dog who has learned to bark on command doesn't automatically know how to kneel on command. Memory is an odd thing though. I mainly remember why the earth has seasons now (though I always knew it) because I remember the study that I quote above.
- redorb 18y agoWonder how this inter-realates to the CIA's use of mis information and other information based forms of control or influence. Good read.
- llimllib 18y agoWhere's yudkowsky... he'll be shocked to learn this news!
- rokhayakebe 18y agoDid I not say this 3 days ago (on a less scientific note) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227331 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227331 ?
- j2d2 18y agoI don't think people are paying that much attention to you... Try phrasing it like, "I said something similar 3 days ago. Perhaps you'll find it relevant."
- rokhayakebe 18y agoI said something similar 3 days ago. Perhaps you'll find it relevant http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227331 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227331 and 169 days ago. Perhaps you'll find it relevant as well. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=96720 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=96720
- dangoldin 18y agoIf you were interested in this, there's a pretty good book that goes into more detail and provides a lot of anecdotes: http://www.amazon.com/Mistakes-Were-Made-But-Not/dp/0156033909/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214598679&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Mistakes-Were-Made-But-Not/dp/01560339...