Confirmed: quarter of the population is really stupid

bbgun

Benched
Messages
27,869
Reaction score
6
1 in 4 Americans Don't Know Who We Fought for Independence

Poll shows some Americans need to brush up on the Revolutionary War

By JUAN DEJESUS
Updated 9:00 AM EDT, Sat, Jul 3, 2010

founding-fathers-declaration-of-independence.jpg


As grills across America fire up this weekend some Americans may want to crack open a history book instead of a cold beer.

A Marist poll finds that 26 percent of Americans don’t know whom the United States declared its independence from.

The 26 percent includes 6 percent that are unsure that the United States fought any war of independence at all. Other respondents gave a range of countries that included France, China, Mexico, Spain and Japan, according to the pollsters at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

For the record, it was Great Britain we broke away from.
The telephone poll which surveyed 1,004 Americans ages 18 and over. Callers were selected based on a list of telephone exchanges from throughout the nation.

The exchanges were selected to ensure that each region was represented in proportion to its population. In an effort to increase coverage, the land-line sample was supplemented by random dialing of cell phone numbers.

The results of the survey are statistically significant with a margin of error of 3 percent.

This news comes as the U.S. Citizenship and immigration Service held ceremonies for 150 candidates for citizenship on Ellis Island and naturalized more than 3,800 citizenship candidates in approximately 55 special ceremonies held across the United States and abroad.

“Independence Day reminds us all what it means to be an American,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas.
 
i call BS, everybody hates these phone surveys(i used to be the guy that called) and people give stupid answers on purpose. the only way this is accurate is if 20% of the survey was taken from non-english speaking households
 
If someone called me and asked the question, I'd probably think I was being clever by playing dumb to throw off their statistics. I'd say at least 15% of the respondents probably felt the same way.
 
I live 20 minutes away from Marist college. I like the bars near Marist:D
 
bbgun;3450392 said:
The 26 percent includes 6 percent that are unsure that the United States fought any war of independence at all. Other respondents gave a range of countries that included France, China, Mexico, Spain and Japan, according to the pollsters at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.




:lmao2:
 
I would say a very small percentage of those who gave incorrect or clueless answers did so purposely.
 
VietCowboy;3450468 said:
I would say a very small percentage of those who gave incorrect or clueless answers did so purposely.
define small. im telling you people always gave me wrong data on purpose but we had to take it as long as they were answering the questions.
 
Technically it would be 1/4 of Americas are ignorant, not stupid.
Blame our wonderful education system. The survey is bogus though given the conditions lol

Regardless though, I can't really ever remember a time, or think of a time I will EVER need to know that, other than passing school tests.. asking me that. Can't think of one time in my adult life that history facts such as that have ever been useful, not to say history isn't useful.
 
rkell87;3450482 said:
define small. im telling you people always gave me wrong data on purpose but we had to take it as long as they were answering the questions.

One of my favorite George Carlin Quote: Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

By very small, I would say less than 5%.
 
All you college-educated guys thinking that there's "no way" that people are that dumb are really giving our country more credit than it deserves. Of course all us high-browers sitting around on an internet forum know about history.
 
I admit that some will not always give an honest and sincere answer to survey questions. But as someone who has taught courses at the college level for a number of years, i don't find the results of this particular survey to be unrealistic. In fact, i would have guessed a higher percentage.
 
VietCowboy;3451316 said:
One of my favorite George Carlin Quote: Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

By very small, I would say less than 5%.
its possible but I'm telling you i did these surveys for more than a year and when it is a pointless survey you get people(and I'm saying 10-15%) that just make stuff up or give answers to throw off the results. now when you do surveys that count for something(example i did a lot of transportation surveys for different cities) then people will give correct info.

I'm just saying from experience that i don't buy the results as an accurate representation of Americans knowledge of our history
 
I am still trying to figure out just how many samurai died during the Revolutionary War. 10,000? 50,000?



:lmao:
 
rkell87;3451351 said:
its possible but I'm telling you i did these surveys for more than a year and when it is a pointless survey you get people(and I'm saying 10-15%) that just make stuff up or give answers to throw off the results. now when you do surveys that count for something(example i did a lot of transportation surveys for different cities) then people will give correct info.

I'm just saying from experience that i don't buy the results as an accurate representation of Americans knowledge of our history

I think we are both anecdotally driven so far but I would be happy to look up the scientific information when I have more time. In my own experience, the average person is not particularly knowledgeable. Half the schools in the US do not teach the science of evolution. When you are paid to participate in scientific research, people tend to take it more seriously, and even then, they found that one in five Americans thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/s...r=1&ex=1125547200&en=631977063d726261&ei=5070
 
DallasEast;3451378 said:
I am still trying to figure out just how many samurai died during the Revolutionary War. 10,000? 50,000?



:lmao:

Sen. Bluto would like to know how many German planes we shot down at Pearl Harbor.
 
VietCowboy;3451316 said:
One of my favorite George Carlin Quote: Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
:bow:
 

Staff online

Forum statistics

Threads
465,325
Messages
13,866,193
Members
23,790
Latest member
MisterWaffles
Back
Top