The older you are, the worse you are at identifying facts from opinions

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Given the political slant of the questions that were asked, I wonder if the results have something to do with older people being more conservative, and therefore less likely to accept the factual statements as factual owing to their political beliefs and motivated reasoning.

For example, had the factual statements been things like "On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was duly elected president of the United States", or "Millions of immigrants in the United States today are here illegally", or "A fetus has the ability to feel pain during the second trimester of pregnancy", I wonder what the results would have been.

Basically this. If the actual intent of the study was to determine who is better at sorting fact from opinion, you'd expect the questions to be totally inane and not politically charged at all.

You mean a study like this had underlining motives?! I am shocked!

[Charsiu]

Originally Posted by Dion

Is there a quiz/test to go along with this?

An old codger like myself would be interested to see how he does.

See attached for the original study:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...from-opinions/

and the quiz:

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/news-statements-quiz/

Good luck old man!

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Charsiu

See attached for the original study:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...from-opinions/

and the quiz:

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/news-statements-quiz/

Good luck old man!

100%!


Pew now knows that I am as smart as I know I am.

[Flash Walken]

"Let me explain to why the home of Land Rover doesn't buy large vehicles as a status symbol."

[Erick Estrada]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevorn.../#7344be027ec6

I'll just leave this right here and say nothing more on this topic.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Weitz

You mean a study like this had underlining motives?! I am shocked!

What motives did it have?

I believe he was saying that because of the political nature of the questions, they were harder to answer if you strongly adhered to a political ideology that often questions or denies the facts included.

But the facts are facts, and the opinions are opinions. It is not a hard test, I got 10/10 and a big reason was that I was able to separate opinion statements from factual statements based on the construction of the statements, not the content.

What did you get?

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Not surprising considering how often I see old people struggling on a daily basis.

[Hockeyguy15]

Hard to believe people don't get 10/10 on that...Yikes.

[Sliver]

It's not that hard to believe. I got a 100%, too, but you could see exactly where dopes would go wrong.

[Shin Pad]

I'm 65 and I got 100% on the quiz. I don't think that it proves anything - that's just my opinion,

[Red Slinger]

Originally Posted by Shin Pad

I'm 65 and I got 100% on the quiz. I don't think that it proves anything - that's just my opinion,

No you old codger. If you got 10/10 on the quiz that's a fact.

In all seriousness, this was more of a semantics test than anything else. It was asking if people understood the difference in how a statement is worded.

For instance, there was one question that was something like "abortion should always be legal". Obviously, this is a statement of opinion but the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is legal so it could be construed as fact. Although, does that mean all abortions should always be legal regardless of the stage of pregnancy? I guess I can see how some people answered these incorrectly.

What I found more interesting is that the mistaken answers were found on both ends of the political spectrum. This seems to indicate that it's not just conservatives that live in an information bubble, as many have claimed.

[Matt Reeeeead]

I wrote it in about 5 seconds and got 100%

Scares me that others cant do the same.

I have many older people in my life that for sure would not get 100%. I argue with them about what represents a fact vs an opinion all the time, and have trouble even talking to them if they cant understand basic conversational context such as that. You cant get anywhere.

I see those people as being "set in their ways" and general belief that their life experiences make them "all knowing" to some degree.

I dont think its an older senility thing.

Its more like specific personality traits and poor level of self reflection ability that has gotten worse over time as they believe their experiences continue making them much more knowledgeable each year.

I would argue the opposite has actually happened. Its frustrating.

[Locke]

Lock up old people so they cant get to voting booths.

The stats back this up now. Get it done.

[Shin Pad]

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

No you old codger. If you got 10/10 on the quiz that's a fact.

In all seriousness, this was more of a semantics test than anything else. It was asking if people understood the difference in how a statement is worded.

For instance, there was one question that was something like "abortion should always be legal". Obviously, this is a statement of opinion but the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is legal so it could be construed as fact. Although, does that mean all abortions should always be legal regardless of the stage of pregnancy? I guess I can see how some people answered these incorrectly.

What I found more interesting is that the mistaken answers were found on both ends of the political spectrum. This seems to indicate that it's not just conservatives that live in an information bubble, as many have claimed.

I wasn't referring to the fact that I got 100% on the quiz. I was referring to my statement "I don't think it proves anything" as being an opinion Also, at 65 I'm not old - I've just been young for longer than a lot of people - another opinion

[BeltlineFan]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevorn.../#7344be027ec6

I'll just leave this right here and say nothing more on this topic.

Well obviously 1/3 of American millenials know the Earth is actually an imperfect oblate spheroid.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Charsiu

See attached for the original study:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...from-opinions/

and the quiz:

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/news-statements-quiz/

Good luck old man!

Got a 100% junior

[GGG]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

What motives did it have?

I believe he was saying that because of the political nature of the questions, they were harder to answer if you strongly adhered to a political ideology that often questions or denies the facts included.

But the facts are facts, and the opinions are opinions. It is not a hard test, I got 10/10 and a big reason was that I was able to separate opinion statements from factual statements based on the construction of the statements, not the content.

What did you get?

The issue is a little bigger than that as the entire validity is questionable if the difficulty of the test was skewed against older people. The results of old people doing worse might just be because the old people had a more difficult test.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by GGG

The issue is a little bigger than that as the entire validity is questionable if the difficulty of the test was skewed against older people. The results of old people doing worse might just be because the old people had a more difficult test.

Not true, millennials are stupid too, 1/3 of don’t believe the earth is round!

[GGG]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Not true, millennials are stupid too, 1/3 of don’t believe the earth is round!

Exactly, this test may under represents stupid milenials

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Not surprising considering how often I see old people struggling on a daily basis.

Aren't like half your posts about you struggling with things?