Mori poll: Thailand ranks 7th in world "ignorant index" but US is number 5!

[brling]

3 hours ago, tcris52 said:

Not at all surprised. The US elected Donald Trump. 

 

 They also elected that PC. Obumer,  that clown who thinks there is 57 states.

[csabo]

8 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

The US went from 24th to 5th in a year?  Really? LOL 

 

Houston, we have a problem. LOL

 

Too bad 90% of Americans would have no idea why you are talking about Houston.

[EnlightenedAtheist]

The 2014 poll revealed that Britons were generally clueless, but I don't want to spoil the party! Well! No worries! By now, everyone should be under the table signing "I've Got a Luvverly Bunch of Coconuts"! WOW! Coconuts! I didn't know!

 

1. Teenage pregnancy: the British think one in six (16%) of all teenage girls aged 15-19 give birth each year, when the actual figure is only 3%.
2. Muslims: we hugely over-estimate the proportion of Muslims in Britain – we think one in five British people are Muslims (21%) when the actual figure is 5% (one in twenty).
3. Christians: in contrast, we underestimate the proportion of Christians - we think 39% of the country identify themselves as Christian compared with the actual figure of 59%.
4. Immigration: we think 24% of the population are immigrants – which is nearly twice the real figure of 13%.
5. Ageing population: we think the British population is much older than it actually is – the average estimate is that 37% of the population are 65+, when it is in fact only 17%.
6. Voting: we underestimate the proportion of the electorate that voted in the last general election - the average guess is 49% when the official turnout was much higher at 66%.
7. Unemployment: we think nearly 24% of the working age population are unemployed when the actual figure is much lower at 7%.
8. Life expectancy: we overestimate our life expectancy by three years, thinking the average for a child born in 2014 will be 83 years, when the actual estimate is 80 years.
9. Murder rates: we are however one of the best informed countries on the murder rate: 49% saying it is falling (which is correct), and only 25% think it is rising

[Essaybloke]

Now just hang on a minute, I have been to the ipsos-mori website and regarding the  The full Ipsos “Index of Ignorance, Thailand does not even appear and the US is 5th most accurate after S. Korea, Ireland, Poland, China. The 'most ignorant' are Mexico, India, Brazil, Peru, NZ, Columbia, Belgium. But looking at the questions, they're not exactly 'general knowledge'.

[robblok]

1 hour ago, starky said:

Yeah your from the master race. Even the cheese eating surrender monkeys the french didnt fold as quickly as you clowns

 

Oh dear i guess your country had a bad score so you can't take a joke ?

 

Personally I don't have to feel proud or ashamed for things that happened decades ago. I am against all that nationalism it only brings trouble. 

 

[bumpkin]

Did I read this correctly?

27000 people in 40 countries,  so about 675 people per country.  

I don't know much about sampling,  but 675 (even double or treble it) would seem doubtfully representative of populations the size of China or USA.

 

Interesting to know who sponsored this poll and why ?

[George Graham]

6 hours ago, Uncle Bob said:

 Are these statements really not true then? I know they collaborated with the japs but by whom where they colonised? Won from France?

Look at a map of Thailand pre-Rama V.

[Rhys]

yet colonized by Song, IBM, Mc Donalds, Pizza Hut, Coke, a, cola....

[GR8fun in LOS]

10 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Not sure if translation was the problem, but this is totally wrong.  From the MORI site:

https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3664/perils-of-perception-2015.aspx

 

It would help if you quoted from the correct year your figures above are for 2015 and THailand does not even appear. See https://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/ipsos-mori-perils-of-perception-charts-2016.pdf 

 

 

[dunroaming]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

But they still beat out the US that was in 5th

 

Judging by the recent election I think that is quite generous.  Sorry guys I couldn't resist that!

[Krataiboy]

Now you understand how Donald Trump got to be President of the world's most powerful nation.

[puck2]

10 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

The US went from 24th to 5th in a year?  Really? LOL 

 

Houston, we have a problem. LOL

 

LOL ???

They have considered the November election results !!! 

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

10 hours ago, smutcakes said:

No great surprise to see the US where they are. A cursory glance at the US posters on TVF World News section sends alarming signals on the general level of mental aptitude of US citizens, and these are presumably part of the tiny % who have actually managed to negotiate leaving the country. Does not surprise that they show a similar level of ignorance within their own country.

I tend to agree, as evidenced by (rhymes with) "Derick Farht" who is often in a local publication's letters page.

[charmonman]

10 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

The US went from 24th to 5th in a year?  Really? LOL 

 

Houston, we have a problem. LOL

It might have something to do with the year being an election year and the amount of complete BS being spouted by one candidate in particular. Given the result, it will only get worse over the next 4 years.

[madusa]

On 28/12/2016 at 11:14 PM, Uncle Bob said:

 Are these statements really not true then? I know they collaborated with the japs but by whom where they colonised? Won from France?

Pure rubbish

[dunroaming]

I think that many Americans are pretty savvy about what goes on in their neighbourhood but have no interest is what happens outside of that.

[overherebc]

8 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Well here's a bit of a twist. Some years ago I attended a large 7 day seminar in China (conducted in English).

 

A few of the attendees from the USA were 3 days late arriving. Some never arrived. 

 

Why? They thought all US citizens were exempt from needing a passport to enter any country in the world.

 

They bought tickets on-line, they arrived at check-in in the US and got a rude shock when boarding was refused.

 

Some had passports and were able to quickly get a visa for entry to China. Some didn't even have a passport so the seminar finished before they could all documentation completed. 

 

There was a question asked once, really, but not on TV, but similar from a guy in USA.

Do I need a passport to go on holiday in Vietnam because we won the war.

[Get Real]

Doesn´t really matter. Nothing works anyway.

[overherebc]

26 minutes ago, overherebc said:

 

There was a question asked once, really, but not on TV, but similar from a guy in USA.

Do I need a passport to go on holiday in Vietnam because we won the war.

 

Re above post the situation could arise because of scenes in movies where in the movie people see someone make a sudden decision to go to Asia and the next day they are on a plane on their way. No ref to visas passports etc so it's thought of as being that's how it is.

Mind you the movie is in colour so it must be true, right?

And the USA cracked the Enigma code, right? I've seen the movie.

[dunroaming]

Yes I do think that many Americans get their knowledge from their TV screens but then is that their fault.  Perhaps that is why so many think that only a gun can solve all the ills of the world. After all It worked for John Wayne and Clint Eastward!

[Guy360]

12 hours ago, smutcakes said:

No great surprise to see the US where they are. A cursory glance at the US posters on TVF World News section sends alarming signals on the general level of mental aptitude of US citizens, and these are presumably part of the tiny % who have actually managed to negotiate leaving the country. Does not surprise that they show a similar level of ignorance within their own country.

The average American is below average.    I am an American and can't believe the total ignorance of most of my countrymen, .especially the younger generation.  Our elementary schools are far more interested in "feelings" , "emotions", and cultural engineering than they are with the basics of Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Science, History and Civics.

 

[chilidog]

12 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Finally.............a poll that you can believe.  

Anytime something from America comes up you always have a few ignorant aholes come out.

[dunroaming]

Joking apart there are many very savvy articulated Americans out there, they are called democrats!  OK, sorry I will start again.  There are many savvy articulated Americans out there. Great IT people, inventive minds and artistic scholars.  We have all been influenced by Americans or American inventions one way or another.

[MaxiMaxi]

But the lack of knowledge of the thai people is very evident, they have been kept like this by the governments since long time.

Americans and Europeans have a lot more knowledge and background

[bangon04]

if you have time - search "Jaywalking" on YouTube for some great examples. Jay Leno interviews americans in the street.

 

or just search "americans ignorant" for a wider choice. 

[LammyTS1]

How did North Korea do?


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[plachon]

13 hours ago, Mook23 said:

in thailand it was like this:

1. we were never colonised

2. we never collaborated with the japs

3. we won from france (anu sawari!!!)

4. we invented the tuktuk!

;-)

joke aside, i always said the thai are the americans of SEA!

Having just returned from the USA, I was struck by just how similar the average Thai and American is. Here, I am not talking about college degree educated people,  but the ordinary person on the street who has maybe a high school education at most, though admittedly Thai university degree educated folk can be more ignorant than your average Bor Hok -educate villager, who at least is generally gifted with a modicum of common sense.

 

But back to the US - I was genuinely surprised at just how insular, nationalistic, dumbed-down, uncurious and poorly educated the average joe blow in the street was. For example, I met a woman at a farmers market, who asked me what my accent was. I asked her to guess, and she ran through Australian, Irish, Scottish and then inexplicably, "London" as her guesses.  I said, "now you are getting warmer. What country is that the capital of?" The question stumped her, as she genuinely thought London was a country. This is a common occurrence in Thailand, where ordinary Thais are at pains to distinguish between many cities and countries of otherwise large and well-known nations. Oh well, I guess the American and Thai education systems still have some way to go, both at home and abroad....trying to disabuse their citizens that their country is not the centre of the universe, let alone the greatest country on earth would be a start, I suppose. 

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

9 hours ago, aguy30 said:

Really don't like arrogant, ignorant fools that generalize all people into one group.

I totally dislike Trump and didn't vote  for him.

He received received less than 50% of the vote and won based on the absurd electoral college. He would have lost had someone other Clinton been running against him. It was a choice of who do you hate less.

It's interesting to compare the UK 1st Passed the Post general and parliamentary by-elections with the US Presidential election and the Electoral College. Both seem to end up with a winner that didn't actually get a majority of the votes. It's a quirk of the established democratic procedures in both countries.

In 2015 the conservatives won with 37% of the vote, Labour second with 30%. The big anomaly is the SNP got only 4.5% of the vote when UKIP got 12.5% of the vote, and the SNP has 8.5% of the seats (56) while UKIP has 0.2% (1).

 

Figure that one out....

 

[hawker9000]

15 hours ago, rabas said:

Good catch. But.... Apollo has landed.

 

In 2014 the US was the second most ignorant country of those studied, wow.

 

 

They are interviewing young liberals!

 

The poll asked 16-24 year olds a variety of questions to test their knowledge of their own country

 

2014 poll in full including the questions.

https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3466/Perceptions-are-not-reality-10-things-the-world-gets-wrong.aspx

2015 poll in full including the questions.

https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3664/Perils-of-Perception-2015.aspx

 

 

"They are interviewing young liberals!"

 

...or illegals.

 

 

[dunroaming]

It's easy to confuse academia with intelligence.  Put a professor of sociology on a desert island with a farmer and who is likely to last longer.

 

Ignorance of world affairs doesn't really matter to an average worker in Wisconsin and isn't going to make much difference to his lifestyle.  However when you ask him to make a judgement on who is suitable to represent him on the world stage then you are dicing with death.  Hence the situation you now have in the USA.