14 Comments
User's avatar
John Rawls's avatar

It is funny thing that americans are very good in pisa or scientific knowledge when we consider there is stereotype of "ignorant american"

Expand full comment
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard's avatar

I think the stereotype mainly relates to Americans' lack of cultural knowledge (no foreign language), the extreme rate of young earth creationism. USA does not participate properly in PISA, only data from a few states, so be careful with those results. But yes, on average, Americans do OK on formal testing compared to the stereotype.

Expand full comment
Viddao's avatar

There is great diversity among Americans. Americans can either be extremely knowledgeable or extremely ignorant. It varies depending on the American in question. Americans are a very extreme people.

Expand full comment
Hans G. Schantz's avatar

It's hard to make even "simple" science questions unambiguous.

https://aetherczar.com/pew-center-and-aaas-fail-own-scientific-literacy-quiz/

Expand full comment
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard's avatar

OK, but you are intentionally trying to misunderstand the question. GPS is a particular system of navigation that works using satellites, and that's clearly what the question is asking about. You can check the data and see if the loading of this particular question is bad, but it is probably fine. https://rpubs.com/EmilOWK/pew_science Looks like question 4 has a loading of 0.55, not bad.

Expand full comment
Hans G. Schantz's avatar

GPS usually, but not always, employs satellites. GPS always employs precise timing. GPS is fundamentally a location system that relies on timing of radio signals. That those radio signals are broadcast from satellites is incidental, not an essential feature.

Expand full comment
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard's avatar

It's like you completely ignored everything I wrote.

Expand full comment
Joshua Oreskovich's avatar

I think the conflation you're seeing isn't humility necessarily, it may be that in some cases the language itself does not convey enough meaning in one fashion or another. To an autistic, the word choice could be: confusing, lacking enough context. In the case of Pakistan, it probably a severe issue of intent/language, in the case of Vietnam, it may also be the same thing, lack of trust for different reasons.

Asians may look like on the outset ~ humility but I really doubt that is the underlying issue, it's moreso cultural pacifism.

the issue with grading poetry vs. science is an education bias issue. You have to be trained to see it as a facet of science, much in the same way you can view games as art. It's really beginning to engage in perspective at that point.

All of this boils down to language usage however, some of it trust.

which further will likely depend on mental categorization.

Expand full comment
Joshua Oreskovich's avatar

In fact both Vietnam and Pakistan could be cases of generational trauma./trust.

Expand full comment
Disgenik's avatar

Could you post the Average IQ of the 6 compilations?

Expand full comment
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard's avatar

It's in the spreadsheet.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Feb 16, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard's avatar

Probably, but it was in 2018, so that time is long gone.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Feb 16, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Feb 16, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard's avatar

OK, but this isn't a COVID conspiracy blog, or the blog where we complain about COVID vaccination authoritarianism.

Expand full comment