The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ... • Hacker News Board

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#31

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:00 PM UTC

Crito wrote: post #22

insuffi wrote: post #19

Earlier 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…

[deleted]

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#32

Post by mikeash » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:00 PM UTC

qwerta wrote: post #23

So 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.

Do they have strong opinions about European intervention in Washington state?

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#33

Post by benjvi » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:00 PM UTC

This makes sense, no? With less knowledge about the Ukraine and hence less information about the ties and affinity parts of its population have to Russia, the more aggressive Russia seems. Without that knowledge, you just have to take the prior assumption that Ukraine is just like any other country, no specific link to Russia - and given that, the breach of sovereignty seems more egregious than it is in this specific situation.

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#34

Post by AJ007 » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:02 PM UTC

tinbad wrote: post #17

Nacraile wrote: post #10

Earlier 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…

Yep. It seems that most people were actually quite close (with the majority at least pointing at other Eastern European countries) and, like you pointed out: most people from Europe wouldn't do much better. An even better comparison would be to ask Europeans about the location of different US states, I'm pretty sure the results would be very poor, if not worse.

I don't know what Survey Sampling charges but a Mapbox hack + a $1,000-$2,000 ad campaign, run internationally, could accomplish this.

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#35

Post by insuffi » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:03 PM UTC

ganeumann wrote: post #25

insuffi wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I didn't think about the "pressure" of the survey, I must admit. Fair point.

However, does the fact that if you don't know where the country in question is located, and out of war|no war, you choose war, not strike you as somewhat weird?

I'd like to think most people would always choose no war over war ESPECIALLY if they're uneducated about the situation.

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#36

Post by jnbiche » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:04 PM UTC

Most interesting tidbit for me: "self-identified independents (29 percent correct) outperformed both Democrats (14 percent correct) and Republicans (15 percent correct)"

Edit: Removed inflammatory language about Democrats and Republicans and will let the numbers speak for themselves.

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#37

Post by FatalLogic » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:08 PM UTC

This seems to be a textbook example of the Dunning-Kruger effect: the people who know least are the most willing to take action, because their ignorance blinds them to the impracticality and potential consequences of that action.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#38

Post by epo » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:08 PM UTC

qwerta wrote: post #23

So 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.

Has Washington state been on the news in Europe a lot recently?

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#39

Post by sp332 » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:11 PM UTC

fharper1961 wrote: post #12

sebastialonso wrote: post #3

Although I find it interesting, what's the point of the article other than "look how most Americans are ignorant about world geography"? And what do I gain from it?

The more people actually know about a place, the less they think it's a good idea to kill people who live there.

In this case, military intervention would not involve killing people who live there.

Re: The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want ...

#40

Post by pistle » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 5:11 PM UTC

Where's the map where they baseline people identifying something in the US (or other map points with higher likely familiarity) correctly as well? That would help clear out some noise.

Secondly. Who cares at this point? Seems like Putin keeps Crimea on the basis of some familiar reasoning that bodes poorly for outcomes here. There is no appetite or willing money for military intervention at scale.