We’re All Stupid

In: Culture Politics US Economy

23 Sep 2010

Actual wealth distribution versus what people think it is. (via)

image

This reminded me of a survey the Washington Post did a while ago which compared the ethnic distribution of the USA to what different ethnic groups thought it was – everyone got that horribly wrong too. Quick test: what percent of the population is White, Black, and Asian? Highlight the next line for the answer:

White: 75%  Black: 12%  Asian: 3.6% (2000 Census)

flattr this!

2 Responses to We’re All Stupid

Avatar

Tessa Watanabe

September 23rd, 2010 at 11:38 pm

Please keep in mind that there is a “weighting” to this data; due to the fact that clearly not “everyone” or even a representative group responded to the survey.

Avatar

jonmcrawford

September 24th, 2010 at 8:29 am

What causes you to state that this was not “a representative group”, other than the bias inherent in it being online, and therefore excluding folks who are not online?

From the document, starting last paragraph on page 3: “A nationally representative online sample of respondents (N = 5,522, 51% female, Mage = 44.1), randomly drawn from a panel of over one million Americans, completed the
Building a Better America 4
survey in December, 2005.1 Respondents’ household income (Median = $45,000) was similar to that reported in the 2006 United States census (Median = $48,000), and their voting pattern in the 2004 election (50.6% Bush, 46.0% Kerry) was also similar to the actual outcome (50.8% Bush, 48.3% Kerry). In addition, the sample contained respondents from 47 states.”

Comment Form


blog advertising
is good for you

What is Chart Porn?

An addictive collection of beautiful charts, graphs, maps, and interactive data visualization toys -- on topics from around the world.

  • Mike: My major quibble is the video flips between income and wealth as if they're interchangeable. You can [...]
  • David: Who else wants to tell the Copyright Alert System people to go fuck themselves? [...]
  • Carl: Very interesting video. The angle that is never shown in videos and graphs like these is the change [...]
  • Maria Droujkova: What is lacking: - The percentage of vaccinated (low for some of listed diseases) - The incidence [...]
  • escort madrid: Someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs about the vaccine data, for those people it is really [...]