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Normal_Anomaly comments on [Infographic] A reminder as to how far the rationality waterline can climb (at least, for the US). - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: Logos01 22 November 2011 12:44PM

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Comment author: RobertLumley 22 November 2011 04:15:38PM 4 points [-]

I'd like to see the raw results of the survey, especially the questions asked. (But not so much so that I am actually going to look up their sources.) I have a hard time believing that 33% of US adults actually don't think that the earth goes around the sun once a year. What seems most likely to me is that these questions were part of a lengthy survey, and were cherry picked because of their responses. Alternatively, a lengthy survey may have led to false responses. Some of these are less surprising. But I'd estimate with only 0.2 probability that at least 33% of US adults actually disagree that the earth goes around the sun once a year. I might assign probability of 0.15 that at least 49% of US adults actually believe that tomatoes don't have genes.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 07 December 2011 10:03:57PM *  2 points [-]

Another possibility for the bad responses on the earth and sun question is misreading. I have misread that or similar questions several times, but if you asked me to draw a sketch of the solar system I know perfectly well what goes around what.