Guest whatever by David Middleton
Do People Really Think Earth Might Be Flat?
A poll says lots of Millennials evidently do—and it’s not entirely clear why
By Craig A. Foster, Glenn Branch on August 21, 2018
“Just 66 percent of millennials firmly believe that the Earth is round,” read the summary from the pollster YouGov. Kids today, right? But it’s not only curmudgeons eager to complain about the younger generation who ought to find the survey of interest. For despite the recent prominence of flat-earthery among musicians and athletes, YouGov’s survey seems to have been the first systematic attempt to assess the American population’s views on the shape of the Earth.
Moreover, the results raised a number of compelling questions that deserve attention. For example, why is the scientifically established view on the shape of the Earth less popular among younger respondents (according to YouGov) when the scientifically established view on the history of life and on the cause of global warming have been, in poll after poll, more popular among younger respondents?
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The authors (“a psychology professor at the Air Force Academy and a long-time staffer at the National Center for Science Education”) went on to examine the raw data and could not verify YouGov’s survey results…
Puzzled but undeterred, we used the information in the spreadsheet to calculate acceptance of the round Earth by age groups and found that only about 82.5 percent of millennials (as YouGov called 18–24-year-olds) agreed with “I have always believed the world is round.” That’s still dismayingly low, of course, but it’s not as dismayingly low as 66 percent. And those aged 25–34 turned out to fare a tad worse, with only about 81.8 percent agreeing.
The discrepancy between the data underlying YouGov’s original report and the data provided in the spreadsheet undermined our understanding of both data sets. Frustratingly, YouGov was unable or unwilling to provide further assistance. Although there are transparency standards in survey research, such as the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls, they are, regrettably, not universally followed.
Even more oddly, the majority of the ~18% of survey respondents who didn’t believe the Earth was round(ish) also didn’t believe it was flat.
In the absence of further information, what can we conclude? Clearly, despite the discrepancy between the results, younger people are less likely to agree with the scientifically established view of the shape of the Earth. Yet, B.o.B. and Kyrie Irving notwithstanding, the spreadsheet data indicate that they are not substantially more likely to agree that the Earth is flat. Indeed, firm belief in a flat Earth was rare, with less than a 2 percent acceptance rate in all age groups.
Rather, according to the spreadsheet data, younger people were more likely to be uncertain or ambivalent about the shape of the Earth, either agreeing that they have recently entertained doubts that the Earth is round or opting for the “Other/Not Sure” choice on the questionnaire. Importantly, these responses weren’t distinctive to those aged 18 to 24 but were comparably prevalent among those aged 25 to 34 and those aged 35 to 44.
What can we conclude from this? I’d like to conclude that the 16% of not round, but not flat respondents were thinking spheroid… which is still round(ish). Although the most likely answer is that they are uninterested in the shape of the Earth because it didn’t come from an iPhone app.
We can also conclude that the results of public polling need to be taken with a LARGE grain of salt.
I’ll just conclude with a bit of humor…
Did you consider that the actual questions asked might have affected the way people responded?
For instance, asking someone to agree with the statement “I have always believed the earth is round”, might elicit a “no” response from someone if they remember that as a 7 year old kid they assumed it was flat, because that was their life experience at that time.
This survey result should probably be ignored because many people, if being totally honest, could not agree that they had “always” thought the earth was round.
According to special theory of relativity, if you’re approaching Earth’s north pole from space at 99.9999999999999% the speed of light, Earth would be a flat disk 12,768 km in diameter and 56.8 cm thick.
According to general theory of relativity, only the Earth’s two-dimensional surface is round. Earth’s three-dimensional space is flat. To prove this, three points on Earth’s surface connected by three lines on the surface form a triangle with angles greater than 180 degrees. But connect the north pole, south pole and a point on the equator by three lines passing inside Earth, they form a triangle with angles equal to 180 degrees.
She’s not a flat Earther or a millennial
Polls are garbage
Take this propaganda BS poll:
http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/02/02/vast-majority-of-americans-say-benefits-of-childhood-vaccines-outweigh-risks/
“82% of Americans say the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine should be required for healthy schoolchildren in order to reduce public health risk”
OK then they tell us 4 in 5 Americans are so brainwashed then want to suspend basic rights, constitutional right to privacy and the Nuremberg code because “health”.
(…)”parents should be able to decide not to have their children vaccinated even if that creates health risks for others”
So the pollster or shall I say fraudster is putting his absurd propaganda claim in the question, so any answer has to include the propaganda. And no answer “this is a propaganda BS poll” is proposed, which in itself nullifies the exercice.
But then:
“55% of Americans perceive strong consensus among medical scientists that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe for healthy children.”
Nearly half of Americans DO NOT see a consensus on MMR vaccine safety. But “An overwhelming majority of Americans (82%) support requiring all healthy schoolchildren to be (MMR) vaccinated”. LOL
“Nearly half of Americans (47%) say that medical scientists understand very well the risks and benefits of the MMR vaccine”
More than half of Americans don’t even say that scientists fully understand the risks and benefits of MMR. LOL
“Some 52% say that scientists’ research on childhood vaccines is influenced by the best available evidence most of the time,”
Half of Americans are not convinced that medical research is based on the evidence even most of the time. IOW they don’t believe it’s scientific. IOW half Americans distrust most researchers.
So one third of Americans support mandatory injections of drugs that are the product of research that isn’t correctly done most of the time, by people who don’t mostly care of the well being of the children, who don’t understand the risks and benefits well…
Give.
Me.
A.
Break.
This is a as phony as a Russia interfered in our vaccines study and a Mull her probe combined.
Vaccines are NOT drugs. There went any science out of your comment. (However, you are helping Lew and Cook immensely.)
Vaccines are what? magical things? LOL
Please go away
“…it’s not entirely clear why”. Yes it is. Public education.
Didn’t run the Micah Tyler video — guy has a look of anger, intolerance, ignorance and hate. Exactly what they are taught.
OK, watched it, he’s making fun of ’em. My bad — he’s a good Joe.
And, to add to the topic, something like 60% of millennials think socialism (communism) is OK? WTF?!? Are they completely loony? Do they not understand even the tiniest modicum of very recent history and even current events?
He’s a Christian pop singer from Texas.
And as we say in the UK, they could have just been pulling your plonker Mr Polster.
Stupid questions tend to bring forth stupid answers.
So, you want a free education ?
Just say something silly on WUWT, and you’ll get educated !!
Of course the earth is not flat! I know this because when the aliens abducted me I was able to see the earth from their spaceship orbiting high above our “round” planet.
Loved the “Millennials” video!
All that is shown by a survey to the average population about whether the Earth is flat or not, is that a large percentage of the population will think it is some kind of joke, and thus give a joking response….I think I would answer “flat” myself, just to poke fun at “dumbness researchers” with their smarter-than-everyone-else attitude.