Thinking about the answers

[andrewducker]

There's a National Geogrpahic quiz doing the rounds, along with results showing that 85% of American's can't find Afghanistan. Strangely, I can't either. I have a vague clue where it is (borders with Pakistan) but nothing more than that.

What I find most interesting is the furore over the fact that only 89% of Americans can find the US on a map. I don't know how controlled the sample is, but if it's truly randomised then that actually doesn't sound unreasonable, as about 10% of people have an IQ of 80 and lower. I'm not surprised that those people can't find the US on a map.

Comments

How

[aberbotimue.livejournal.com]

http://geosurvey.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/templates/answer_10_10_1.html

How can this be the case? the N e S w thing is taught at very early age?

Shocked....

Re: How

[(Anonymous)]

When I first ran through this survey, I almost missed the little compass arrow at the bottom. I think it is really more of a map literacy (which many people never really learn) question than it is a "if north is up, then west is left" question.

On the only 85% of young Americans can find the US, it was notable for being worse than most other countries for ID'ing the US, and much worse the other countries for which there was an equivalent "ID your own country" question.

blogless and nameless

[derumi.livejournal.com]

89%? Wow. I thought it was only 65% or so. The other area that Americans are shoddy in is American history. Naturalized citizens are forced to know more than is successfully taught in American schools.