American Adults Science Grade: D
The state of the nation’s knowledge regarding some basic scientific facts is not good. As reported by the Los Angeles Times earlier today:
The public opinion and research organization quizzed a representative sample of U.S. adults on geology, physics and astronomy, among other topics. Out of 12 questions, the test-takers answered 7.9 correctly, on average. That’s a score of 66%.
These findings come from Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. The survey of 3,278 adults (including 2,923 adults online and 355 respondents by mail) was conducted Aug. 11-Sept. 3, 2014.
Not surprisingly, formal education seems to be the primary factor in determining a person’s success in understanding science. Folks who had earned some type of graduate degree scored an average of 9.5. Those who didn’t make it past high school averaged only 6.8 correct answers. Race also seemed to be a significant factor. Those who identified themselves as “Caucasians” scored 8.9, while those who identified themselves as “African Americans” scored only 5.9.
For the skeptic in all of us, perhaps the most cringe-worthy question had to do with people confusing astronomy and astrology:
More than one in five (22%) of those taking the test said astronomy was “the study of how the positions of stars and planets can influence human behavior.” The answer they should have given was astrology.
Because astronomy was essentially born from the practice of astrology, it is possible to see how some people could be confused between the two … that is, assuming they know about the history of both astrology and astronomy. As Carl Sagan reminded us in the original Cosmos series, Johannes Keppler, the father of modern astronomy was in fact “the first astrophysicist and the last scientific astrologer”. But that was about 400 years ago, and arguably, the “statute of limitations” should have run out on this one by now.
There are many ways to try and measure the scientific literacy of a population, and polls like this one are one possible way to do so. It is by no means THE definitive representation. For those who have been paying attention to how literate people are in the sciences, it does correlate with other observations, and when looking at the big picture, it does reinforce the idea that Americans have more work to do when it comes to learning about science. The pattern is consistent with Pew Research’s 2013 report, and the National Science Board’s Science and Engineering Indicators on this topic.
One thing we can be sure of is that where there is an absence of science understanding, people will often appeal to pseudosciences to help fill the void.
Should people learn more about science, health, math, finance, law, civics, history, geography, computer literacy, home and car repair, emergency preparedness, self-defense, classic literature, and/or parenting?
Where can I find the test administered for this study? I’d like to take it. I never went to college but my desire to continue my education will never cease.
If kids were taught critical thinking and the basics of logical fallacies and cognitive biases in school, they still might not be great “stamp collectors” of science facts, but they’d have much better BS detectors and the barrier of misinformation and pseudoscience would have less impact on their overall science literacy.
Well this “confusing astronomy and astrology” is a somewhat overblown problem. It is after all the confusing of two quite similar sounding words. Anyone may do that without actually lacking the ability to understand both and the difference between them. My guess is that no one would ever think that astrophysics is astrology.
As long as none of those who thought that ‘astronomy’ was the name for astrology actually believed that “The positions of stars and planets can influence human behavior.” I don’t see a huge problem. After all it is more important that people in general understand the concepts of science not necessarily knowing the exact wording.
If the test was full of such “tricky” questions, I’m relieved…
“Those who identified themselves as “Caucasians” scored 8.9, while those who identified themselves as “African Americans” scored only 5.9.”
What are you quoting there? LA Times said, “The Pew researchers also found that whites did better on the test than Latinos or African Americans. Their average scores were 8.4, 7.1 and 5.9, respectively.”
Pew said, “Whites are more likely than Hispanics or blacks to answer more of these questions correctly, on average; the mean number of items correct is 8.4 for whites, 7.1 for Hispanics and 5.9 for blacks.”
Pew said “whites” and “blacks”, and the average for whites was 8.4, not 8.9.
@Max
“Pew said “whites” and “blacks”, and the average for whites was 8.4, not 8.9.”
Could be a simple typo.
More likely, people just read Astromumblemumble and said “Yeah, that one!”
It was a science quiz, so people may have picked “astronomy” without really reading the question, because astronomy is a science.
By the way, why don’t astrologers call themselves “astrologists”? Apparently, they’re actually offended by the term. Don’t they want to be consistent with other -logy scientists like “biologists” and “meteorologists”? They’re not called “biologers.”
It’s as if astrologers want to be confused with “astronomers.” Or is there a historical reason for this?
@Max Astrology is NOT a science, and the fact you made such a statement only reinforces the conclusion that most adult Americans are not science literate.
You took the words right of my mouth
William the basics of science include attention to detail. Please re read the Max post again and see if you can notice your mistake.
The fact that you misread everything reinforces the conclusion that most adult Americans are not literate.
My first sentence speculated that survey-takers picked “astronomy” because it’s a science, unlike astrology.
Then, I asked why astrologers are offended by the term “astrologists”, considering that pseudoscientists generally want to sound like scientists, and I speculated that they call themselves astrologers so people would confuse them with astronomers, who are real scientists.
How did you read all this and conclude that I consider astrology a science?
where is a link to the quiz?
I always like a quiz!, but the broader results don’t surprise me.
There seem to be many layers to address:
-The fight to better educate our citizens.
-The fight to be EVEN ALLOWED to educate our citizens, given the overwhelming religious fights against real education.
-The fight to stand up to religious zealots in civil US politics at all…yeah, that’s sort of the same thing. :/ (Sorry, redundant.)
-The fight to maintain scientific standards in our US schools–books and learning standards. (*personal point: I don’t have evidence for this, but it would seem easier to get gobbledegook non-science curriculum past a group of ideologues than to prove veracity at a legitimate grade level.)
Is this a lazy loop hole in our education system? O_O
I would have liked to have had the test questions posted also, so I could have taken the test.
To be fair, one must consider the curriculum being taught in U.S. schools. I was never taught that astrology was, “the study of how the positions of stars and planets can influence human behavior.” I never remember it having anything to do with human behavior. My point is, are the questions being asked an accurate measure of what citizens know given what they were or were not taught in grade school, across countries? We may not be comparing apples to apples here. Just a thought.
I think the speculation was deemed because if you knew what astronomy meant you wouldn’t have picked it, people are just dumb, no one held back remember?
Unfortunately, this is not at all surprising.
Max, I also misread your statement about astronomy and, upon rereading, recognized that your clause, “because astronomy is a science”, may be misplaced. A better rendering (in my opinion) would have been: It was a science quiz so, because astronomy is a science, people may have picked “astronomy” without really reading the question.
Of course Meteorology (another answer) is also a legitimate science.
My speculation on the reason for such a high response rate is that Astological artifacts, e.g., horoscope items and predictions, etc. are more pervasive in this society than are factual items. As Juvaneal offered, “panem et circenses” appeases the masses’ need for a belief that they are in control and all is well.
I think the 22% of people just saw “study of” “stars and planets” and selected astronomy without reading the whole question. Had it mentioned “horoscopes” more people would’ve selected astrology. It’s just word association.
I don’t see how my placement of “because astronomy is a science” changes its meaning. Maybe I could’ve been more clear by saying, “real -logy scientists” instead of “other -logy scientists,” but whatever.