26% of Americans don't know who US fought to gain its independence

How can you avoid knowing basic American trivia? Man I live in Canada and I can name like the first 7 amendments to the American constitution and I didn't even go out of my way to learn them, they just found their way into my brain over time.

Originally posted by Raist
reply to post by WolfofWar

 

How is he choosing who to test though? Where is he doing this research? I could spend 20 years in an area near a very well to do university and show an increase in IQ or I could go and spend 20 years in a rundown area with nothing more than a failing public school and show the opposite.

He has done a mixture of data collection techniques, using universities social economists and psychology departments to go out and do surveys and do testing (they do this regardless, he takes their data and compiled them in for research.) the data is varied, peer reviewed, and in broad scope, essentially the opposite of how your data collection technique you stated is. I do like that you bring up the variety and drastic differences based on location, background, and data broadness. It is true, you will receive a different data set if you go to one narrow avenue or the other. It's odd though that you seem to support this poll though, which we have little data on, and is done by a group for political purposes and not for general science.

That is the difference between a broad data set (Flynns work) and a narrow data set (some pollster interviewing 100 people in one area.)

You mentioned they could have asked, “Newly arrived Chinese immigrants”. They might well have asked the average Joe in a city near you or I.

Difference how so?

Differences in upbringing, culture, and history. I laid it out pretty specifically already. The

Hopefully the survey was designed such that only "Great Britain," was the correct answer and they did not accept england, or UK as answsers. If all three were accepted as correct then the 26% correct rate means we are truly DOOMED !!!! A nation of dumb ass sluts, hicks, pussified suburbanites, and wannabe dandies living in Idiocracy.

reply to post by doctorwork


First, stereotypes make you look like a fool. If you are adding them for shock value: stop. They aren't funny, they are overdone, and you end up looking like a failed comedian starving for attention. If you actually believe them, you are far worse off then those "dumb slutty hicks" you have disdain for.

Second, Great Britain would also be incorrect. If you really want to get so nit-picky, Great Britain would actually be the "second British Empire" or "The Kingdom of Great Britain." Furthermore the poll would also be incorrect, since it asks who the U.S. fought to gain it's independence. The United States really didn't form until the end of the rebellion, before that they were still British colonies.

If you are going to call out an entire country as "dumb slutty hicks" at least get your facts straight. Bigoted is a bad color for you.

75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can't Name the First President of the U.S.

Imagine that...

26%?

I have to admit.
I thought it would actually be higher.

- Lee