8 ms·

Exactly. Many respondents who know "parsec" don't know it because they're astronomers, they know it because the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less th

• commandlinefan 5y ago
  > the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than twelve of 'em That's a good point - I wonder if the question was "do you recognize this word?" or "can you correctly define this word?" (followed by a quick check)
  • djur 5y ago
    This study uses self-reported recognition of the word. Later in the study they compare their results to other tests that try to identify understanding of the words' meaning. I also wonder if there's any gender differential between male and female respondents in willingness to say they "know" a word that sounds vaguely familiar... and if the sound of a word also affects people's willingness to take a leap. The study doesn't seem to have included fake words or anything like that to catch guessers out (and I don't think that was relevant to what they were trying to determine, anyway). I wouldn't be surprised to learn that male respondents are more likely to take a leap for "piezoelectricity" or "thermistor" than they would be for "peplum" and "chignon".
• nuccy 5y ago
  Oh wow, you are right! I came to comment on exactly my surprise on seeing "parsec" as one of the "best-known" (whatever it means in this study) words.
• bitwize 5y ago
  Or, in second place, because you played the game on TI-99/4A.