Reminds me of this video. As an American it makes me sad.
The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
21–30 of 78 posts
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would bet that the noise comes from people who have no idea just closing their eyes and clicking at random. Clearly the map wasn't coloured to differentiate bodies of water, considering the clusters in the Black and Caspian seas. (But you'd think people could at least identify the major oceans...)
Believe it or not, but there are many real people who point to UK, when asked where Finland is. The point is, if you know where Russia is, you likely know where Ukraine is. The clicking at random is by people who have no idea about either. EDIT: Sorry. I meant that as a reply to your comment regarding legitimacy of the map.
> The point is, if you know where Russia is, you likely know where Ukraine is.
I don't know about that. There are ~15 (depending on what you are counting) countries that border Russia. And while I am fairly confident that I could label them all, Russia would certainly be the easiest to label. It's the big one; it's hard to miss.
I'm the product of American public schools for what its worth. I learned the countries back in middle school, but learning the locations of countries not in North or South America was extra credit for my class (as was learnin the state capitals, and country capitals).
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#23So what? Most people in Europe do not know where Washington state is.
Anyway US already intervened in Ukraine several times. I just hope this will not become another Iraq.
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#24Russia knows more about Ukraine's geography, so they should occupy it.
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I always find interesting about "look at how ignorant Americans are" type articles is that they never bother to compare against any other nationality and see if the ignorance is in any way abnormal in a broader context. Is a "look at how ignorant non-Europeans are about world geography?" going to have a different result? (And I would be quite curious to know how many, say, British or Spaniards can accurately pla…
Coming from a non-American as well: Assuming ignorance would fall in the same spectrum compared to other nationalities, you don't hear other nationalities confidently stating their opinions about things they know nothing about. To be fair, I don't have data to back that up, but I can tell you from my personal observations that people usually refrain from commenting or are reasonably educated about the topic. Why this…
To be fair, these people were asked for their opinion--it was an opinion survey; it's not like they're walking around volunteering it. Saying they shouldn't say anything when asked is a bit odd.
99.9% of the Americans I talk to every day are refraining from commenting about whether the US should intervene in the Ukraine. But, then, I'm not asking.
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#26Many replies here try to dispute the methodology and UX in the survey. When it comes to geography, you either know it, or you don't. The distance from Ukraine for many data points is so big, that you can't possibly write it down to projection/UX.
Whether they answered "in Florida" or "in Kansas" is of little consequence. Either way, they don't know where it is, and that comes through loud and clear.
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#27The map would have been more interesting if the color represented preference for intervention.
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Believe it or not, but there are many real people who point to UK, when asked where Finland is. The point is, if you know where Russia is, you likely know where Ukraine is. The clicking at random is by people who have no idea about either. EDIT: Sorry. I meant that as a reply to your comment regarding legitimacy of the map.
> The point is, if you know where Russia is, you likely know where Ukraine is. I don't know about that. There are ~15 (depending on what you are counting) countries that border Russia. And while I am fairly confident that I could label them all, Russia would certainly be the easiest to label. It's the big one; it's hard to miss. I'm the product of American public schools for what its worth. I learned the countries ba…
Considering there are notable clusters in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, you're probably right. Those people probably located Russia, knew Ukraine is "under" Russia, so picked a couple of countries under Russia.
Incidentally, I suspect those large clusters in the central asian republics account for a large amount of the error in the median response. The lone clicks in New Zealand or whatever don't count as much as big clusters do, and those clusters are pretty near the median error of 1800 miles off.
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#29How did they ask people to locate Ukraine? Some of these points look like somebody accidentally clicked on a random spot of a map. For example, the dot below New Zealand is in the middle of the ocean (approx. -55.000000,176.000000). Some even located it within the US (Florida seems to be a popular guess). Have they found really misinformed people or is this noise in the data?
I would bet that the noise comes from people who have no idea just closing their eyes and clicking at random. Clearly the map wasn't coloured to differentiate bodies of water, considering the clusters in the Black and Caspian seas. (But you'd think people could at least identify the major oceans...)
This would correlate with 'I have no idea what I'm doing'
"In general, younger Americans tended to provide more accurate responses than their older counterparts: 27 percent of 18-24 year olds correctly identified Ukraine, compared with 14 percent of 65+ year-olds."
65+ year olds spent a big chunk of their lives in the cold war. Presumably they would know more about the geographical breakup of the Soviet Union than 18-24 year olds who didn't even exist when the Berlin Wall fell.
From a data analysis standpoint, I would say discard the outliers that look like mis-clicks. Based on the groupings you still have people that identified Alaska, Greenland, Canada, India South America, and so on. Irregardless of the colorings or map size, those should not have been chosen.
On another note, a given countries foreign policy always makes a hell of a lot more sense when placed in context on a map. I'm glad I read a lot of National Geographic as a child.
Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Believe it or not, but there are many real people who point to UK, when asked where Finland is. The point is, if you know where Russia is, you likely know where Ukraine is. The clicking at random is by people who have no idea about either. EDIT: Sorry. I meant that as a reply to your comment regarding legitimacy of the map.
> The point is, if you know where Russia is, you likely know where Ukraine is. I don't know about that. There are ~15 (depending on what you are counting) countries that border Russia. And while I am fairly confident that I could label them all, Russia would certainly be the easiest to label. It's the big one; it's hard to miss. I'm the product of American public schools for what its worth. I learned the countries ba…
Fair point about the 15 countries bordering Russia. I must have not been clear. What I was trying to say is, the least you can do is point towards Russia, if you don't know where Ukraine is.