I get the impression from the map of responses that many respondents were taking the piss. Who really thinks Iran is Greenland?

Clearly. So many also pointing right in the middle of the US, Brazil and Australia.

I’m not sure if the poll was portrayed to be serious.

Also, as someone who was in the US for quite some time, I found that (very much contrary to national stereotypes), Americans were quite knowledgeable about geography and global current affairs. This was evident from the multicultural societies where people knew about their friends, social meetups talking about a lot of different subjects across the world, etc. I refuse to believe that most people are bad at pointing out roughly where different countries are, unless they are countries which genuinely aren’t very well known.

> I’m not sure if the poll was portrayed to be serious.

Indeed, Politico used a survey company that claims they apply "rigorous scientific methodology, trusted by leading organizations across business, policy, media, and tech."

But I find it very difficult to believe that someone identifying Iran by pointing into the ocean, Greenland, or the USA is taking the survey seriously. I mean, American education is certainly horrible, but come on!

https://morningconsult.com/product/survey-research/#section_...

Yeah. They probably paid for completion of the poll, and completing the poll required some selection of a location, so a ton of people did exactly that without even reading what the question was.

Yup. Why is this even posted on HN? Seems really low brow, honestly. I see this as the exact sort of click bait, anger inducing content a lot of people here want to avoid.

Why do we trust the poll if it doesn’t publish the survey contents and describe the methodology for participant selection? Survey design is extremely important, it’s like Stats 101. 2% margin of error, oh I’m sure.

Fun anecdote time: my high school was selected to take a survey on extracurricular activities. It was taken over a couple of days in the period before lunch and took like 2 hours total.

My memory is that everyone in the school used it as an exercise in creativity, with lots of people making themselves out to be drug abuser or gang members on paper, just for the novelty. I distinctly remember being surprised because so many people I didn’t expect(because they were typically honest, straight and narrow type folks) were laughing at their made up character who took meth every day before school and did heroin on the weekends, or whatever. Maybe it’s for this reason that the extreme importance of test design and method has stuck with me, but it seems like most people forget it after they pass Stats? hmmmm.

+1

There were a worrying amount of people clicking on the water.

If they used the same map as in the article (edit: rather, the first regional map, not the world map), that actually doesn't surprise me. It took me a good 10-20 seconds to figure out what part of the world and scale the first picture was at, because I had land and water inverted in my head.

Why would anyone use blue for land instead of water?

Is it not interesting because of the lack of novelty, or not interesting because you think it's acceptable to want to kill someone but not to actually know much about them?

I don't think being able to accurately tell where Iran is is a requirement for wanting to kill someone from there, no. Knowing approximately where it is is useful, but what does it really matter if you confuse it with the next country over?

It means that you have been wholesale influenced rather than informed about the conflict that politicians are peddling to you, as you don't have a grasp on the most basic facts of the matter. We're talking of civilian support for acts of war here.

Specially since an actual war with the people of that polity is an obvious outcome.

If one lacks the knowledge to even identify another nation on the global map, you have to wonder if this person actually has strong, sound judgement (when they speak in favor of dropping bombs) or if they’re easily malleable partisans.

It’s akin to asking Iranians, can you point out Missouri [or Texas or Calif] on a map?

No, because Missouri is not a country. I'm always puzzled by this attitude that individual US states should have the same hierarchy in knowledge of the world as actual countries.

US states are like Chinese provinces. We know about our states, they know about their provinces and we both know a little bit about the countries we have ties to. US and Europe and the Americas, China and East Asia/pac rim and a bit of Africa.

Basically, smaller countries study more about their surroundings more and bigger countries have more internal stuff to learn.

A lot of Americans have trouble locating Nebraska or Kansas on a map. I’m sure a lot of Chinese might get confused about where Shanxi is, especially since many of them have never left their own counties before.

Not really, Iran is a little bit less than ten times the size of Missouri and is a regional military power, as well as controls globally relevant petroleum interests.

Christ. I'm from the U.S. and I can pick Iran on a map without thinking. If you asked me to pick Missouri and Missisippi on a map ... I'd probably get it but I'd sweat a little bit until I heard I was right.

Missisippi is a bit further south but it's not Louisiana.

Missouri is a bit further north but it's not Kansas.

Now that I've looked at a map I can safely say, yeah, I woulda got that wrong.

Actually it's akin to asking Americans, can you point out Missouri on a map?

I'm European and California, New York, Hawaii, Florida would be easy (and relevant for me).

Missouri...to tell you the truth I don't even know what is interesting about it (I'm sure it has a lot of interesting things going on though).

maybe they would if the state of Missouri starts bombing Iran.

That seems rather likely, all things considered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteman_Air_Force_Base

It's not at all like that. Missouri is irrelevant to international politics. (don't tell the farmers that though)

It's more akin to asking Iranians, can you point out Ukraine?

Hm, are you comparing a state of 6 million people with a country of 83 million that has existed for thousands of years?

Not sure that it is. Obviously, you will get people that have no clue, but people should roughly know where most countries are.