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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(108,036 posts)
Thu Oct 25, 2018, 04:19 PM Oct 2018

Older People Are Worse Than Young People at Telling Fact from Opinion

Americans over 50 are worse than younger people at telling facts from opinions, according to a new study by Pew Research Center.

Given 10 statements, five each of fact and opinion, younger Americans correctly identified both the facts and the opinions at higher rates than older Americans did. Forty-four percent of younger people identified all five opinions as opinions, while only 26 percent of older people did. And 18-to-29-year-olds performed more than twice as well as the 65+ set. Of the latter group, only 17 percent classified all five facts as factual statements.

On the individual questions, the identification gap was particularly large regarding the nature of the American government and questions about immigration, but there was no statement that younger Americans did not identify with equal or higher accuracy than their elders.

An earlier study by the American Press Institute also found that older Americans were more confident than younger ones in their ability to discern fact from opinion.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/older-people-are-worse-than-young-people-at-telling-fact-from-opinion/573739/

That would explain the appeasl of Trump I guess.



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Older People Are Worse Than Young People at Telling Fact from Opinion (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Oct 2018 OP
My opinion is that's totally wrong marylandblue Oct 2018 #1
I stand on my opinion, lol saidsimplesimon Oct 2018 #5
I believe that's debatable, but, interesting... Crutchez_CuiBono Oct 2018 #2
laughing as I type saidsimplesimon Oct 2018 #4
So why is my son-in-law an idiot?? dameatball Oct 2018 #3
You should ask your daughter. marylandblue Oct 2018 #7
Is that a fact, or is it your opinion? nt. Mariana Oct 2018 #9
Is that a factual statement or an opinion statement? Crunchy Frog Oct 2018 #10
He is well educated and a 100% Trump supporter, so I can't really answer that. But I'm old, so.... dameatball Oct 2018 #11
Highly educated, maybe...but "well" educated?? Maeve Oct 2018 #15
Right. He's a smart guy but was brought up by RWNJ's. The whole family is that way. dameatball Oct 2018 #16
Early childhood indoctrination is very effective. nt. Mariana Oct 2018 #19
Good question/observation! keithbvadu2 Oct 2018 #20
The average education level of people over 65 is lower than that of younger people. spooky3 Oct 2018 #6
Is this a sudden change that hits you at midnight on your 50th birthday? Crunchy Frog Oct 2018 #8
That is outside the scope of the study. Mariana Oct 2018 #13
Steven Hawking says "Hey!" dameatball Oct 2018 #12
if it's on twitter it is always true fact. nt msongs Oct 2018 #14
the Faux Fake News demo pstokely Oct 2018 #17
No one, of any age, should have gotten even one of them incorrect. Ms. Toad Oct 2018 #18

spooky3

(34,460 posts)
6. The average education level of people over 65 is lower than that of younger people.
Thu Oct 25, 2018, 04:33 PM
Oct 2018

I didn't see anything in the article about whether the authors controlled for that.

Mariana

(14,858 posts)
13. That is outside the scope of the study.
Thu Oct 25, 2018, 04:47 PM
Oct 2018

However, it may help to explain the fact that in 2016, the majority of voters over 45 cast their ballots for Trump.

Ms. Toad

(34,076 posts)
18. No one, of any age, should have gotten even one of them incorrect.
Thu Oct 25, 2018, 06:27 PM
Oct 2018

So it is frightening to me that at least 80% of individuals 50 or older believed one of the facts was an opinion, and at least 74% identified one opinion as fact. (For individuals under 50, 68% identified one fact as opinion, and 56 identified one opinion as fact).

Only one of the facts has any subjectivity at all (ISIS lost a significant portion of its territory in Iraq and Syria in 2017 - how much territory would ISIS have to lose for the portion to be significant).

None of the opinions can be anything but opinion.

I would have hoped that at least half in each category would get all 10 correct. They're not that hard to distinguish.

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