26% of Americans unaware that the Earth goes around the Sun!

It's not important for people to know that the earth orbits the sun. All they should be taught is that the earth is heating up thanks to them driving their cars and eating chili.

Originally posted by humy

will report a confidence interval centered on a biased mean.

What is a “biased mean” as opposed to some other kind of mathematical “mean”? In mathematics, although you can have a “biased sample”, or even the "mean of a biased sample", there is no such thing as “biased mean”; only the “mean”. Thus, they cannot “report a confidence interval ...[text shortened]... for being rather pedantic but little trivial things like that just bother me! Please forgive. )

I think what is aimed at is simply sampling bias. Sampling bias will result in additional uncertainty on top of the uncertainty coming from the finiteness of the sample. Such bias need not be intentional. As an example, consider a survey which is conducted by telephone. Even if you try to make your sample representative, there is a difference on average between people who have telephones in the registry one is considering, or even between people who will answer the survey and who won't. This kind of bias is hard to eradicate systematically, but it can be done if one is careful enough. High-quality statistical meta-analysis was highly successful in predicting the outcome of the last US presidential election.

Originally posted by whodey
It's not important for people to know that the earth orbits the sun. All they should be taught is that the earth is heating up thanks to them driving their cars and eating chili.

For purely practical purposes, obviously it is not important for people to know that the earth orbits the sun.
However, not knowing the Earth orbits the sun is an indicator of a much more worrying generic ignorance and, remember, these people are voters and what they vote for could reflect a much more dangerous generic ignorance (such as unintentionally voting for policies that would increase the chances of a global thermal nuclear war etc )

Originally posted by Eladar
You asked for experience where polls have been biased.

That is right. I am asking you for EVIDENCE. For a belief to be rational that, say, most political polls are bias (note I never implied that they couldn't be biased! ) , you need to know of SPECIFIC evidence (or at least some kind of flawless logic ) of this (preferably evidence that you can show me via a web link -which is why I am insisting on that ) else what do you rationally base that belief on?

Whether the methodology was good, bad or ugly, and whether the results accurately reflect the general population of the US, its still amazing that they were able to find over 500 people who apparently did not know the Earth goes around the Sun.

Does anyone here know anyone (adult) that does not know this basic fact?

Originally posted by humy
That is right. I am asking you for EVIDENCE. For a belief to be rational that, say, most political polls are bias (note I never implied that they couldn't be biased! ) , you need to know of SPECIFIC evidence (or at least some kind of flawless logic ) of this (preferably evidence that you can show me via a web link -which is why I am insisting on that ) else what do you rationally base that belief on?

Why should you demand evidence that the poll was done without bias? Why not demand that the poll takers reveal their method? I know the reason why. You like the results.

People like you are what is wrong with this world. You should always question even if you like the results.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Whether the methodology was good, bad or ugly, and whether the results accurately reflect the general population of the US, its still amazing that they were able to find over 500 people who apparently did not know the Earth goes around the Sun.

Does anyone here know anyone (adult) that does not know this basic fact?

Illegal immigrant workers do not always receive their training in schools.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Whether the methodology was good, bad or ugly, and whether the results accurately reflect the general population of the US, its still amazing that they were able to find over 500 people who apparently did not know the Earth goes around the Sun.

Does anyone here know anyone (adult) that does not know this basic fact?

It is actually a bit inaccurate to say the Earth revolves around the Sun. It would be more precise to say they revolve around each other, since there is no preferential frame of reference.

Originally posted by humy

will report a confidence interval centered on a biased mean.

What is a “biased mean” as opposed to some other kind of mathematical “mean”? In mathematics, although you can have a “biased sample”, or even the "mean of a biased sample", there is no such thing as “biased mean”; only the “mean”. Thus, they cannot “report a confidence interval ...[text shortened]... for being rather pedantic but little trivial things like that just bother me! Please forgive. )

That's OK, I'm not using rigorous terminology. Your concerns sharpen my thinking.

Let's say I want to know how happy Americans in general, are in their life. I stand outside my local baseball stadium and ask people coming out after the game to rank their happiness on a 1 - 10 scale. It so happens that the home team lost. For this and possibly other reasons, the result will have a bias.

Put better, the population I am actually surveying isn't Americans in general, it's more accurately defined as people leaving a baseball game that the home team lost.

The confidence interval on the results will encompass, to some probability, what the results will be for the population represented by such people. It might or might not encompass the population of Americans in general, and no probability for that outcome is predictable, from the data.

Originally posted by Eladar
Why should you demand evidence that the poll was done without bias? Why not demand that the poll takers reveal their method? I know the reason why. You like the results.

People like you are what is wrong with this world. You should always question even if you like the results.

Why not demand that the poll takers reveal their method?

Simple; its the same reason why nobody else has done so here including yourself; I don't have their contact details. If I did, I would.

even if you like the results.

-and I do NOT like the results! I HATE this result! So enough of this crap about "People like you are what is wrong with this world" -you don't know my motives so stop assuming.

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
It is actually a bit inaccurate to say the Earth revolves around the Sun. It would be more precise to say they revolve around each other, since there is no preferential frame of reference.

So given a survey which asked 'does the earth revolve around the sun?' with a yes/no answer what would your answer have been?

I would like to know what percentage of people don't really read or think about such questions in surveys ie just how much error margin there is.

My maths teacher claimed that in a class of 40, there was always someone who got any given question wrong - no matter how simple the question. He did keep records, and he once congratulated us when everybody managed to get one right.

So in the survey, if they asked whats 2+2, what is the percentage of people who get it wrong?

Originally posted by twhitehead
So given a survey which asked 'does the earth revolve around the sun?' with a yes/no answer what would your answer have been?

I would like to know what percentage of people don't really read or think about such questions in surveys ie just how much error margin there is.

My maths teacher claimed that in a class of 40, there was always someone who go ...[text shortened]...

So in the survey, if they asked whats 2+2, what is the percentage of people who get it wrong?

So in the survey, if they asked whats 2+2, what is the percentage of people who get it wrong?

92%! 😲 Isn't it just appalling!

Originally posted by twhitehead
Whether the methodology was good, bad or ugly, and whether the results accurately reflect the general population of the US, its still amazing that they were able to find over 500 people who apparently did not know the Earth goes around the Sun.

Does anyone here know anyone (adult) that does not know this basic fact?

I don't. But perhaps that is because I never popped the question "do you know the Earth orbits the sun?" and, even if I did, I may just get a sarcastic "No, really!?"

Perhaps that could explain the result of the OP poll? -i.e. they were asked and the more intelligent felt their intelligence was so insulted that they answered sarcastically "No, really!?" but that answer was taken literally with the emphasis in the "No" part?

Originally posted by whodey
It's not important for people to know that the earth orbits the sun. All they should be taught is that the earth is heating up thanks to them driving their cars and eating chili.

Of course it is important to know. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to send men to the moon, rovers to Mars, or Voyagers outside our own solar system.

Originally posted by humy
Perhaps that could explain the result of the OP poll? -i.e. they were asked and the more intelligent felt their intelligence was so insulted that they answered sarcastically "No, really!?" but that answer was taken literally with the emphasis in the "No" part?

Thats why I think this particular question really deserves some follow up interviews.