Study: Only two-thirds of Millennials fully believe the Earth is round

[Demovictory9]

https//www.sfgate.com/news/article/Millennials-flat-earth-theory-two-thirds-study-12813321.php



According to a study conducted by British firm YouGov, only two-thirds of Millennials fully believe that the Earth is round.

The survey asked 8,215 American Millennials the question, "Do you believe that the world is round or flat," then offered them the following set of answers:

- I have always believed the world is round

- I always thought the world is round, but more recently I am skeptical/have doubts

- I always thought the world is flat, but more recently I am skeptical/have doubts

- I have always believed the world is flat

- Other/Not sure

66 percent of the study's participants chose "I have always believed the world is round," nine percent chose "I always thought the world is round, but more recently I am skeptical/have doubts," five percent chose "I always thought the world is flat, but more recently I am skeptical/have doubts," four percent chose "I have always believed the world is flat," and 16 percent chose "Other/Not sure."

[Hoyt]

1. I guess that's an improvement from 600 years ago, or in red school districts.

[Cha]

9. lol

[marylandblue]

2. I believe our education system has failed.

[Mariana]

7. My millennial kid thinks her peers trolled the poll. nt.

I suspect she's right.

[Decoy of Fenris]

13. Agreed. Millennials have a fondness for dicking with pollsters.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a personal hand in mucking around with surveys and nonsense like that, myself. Watching the resulting confusion can be quite funny, similar to this poll.

[dameatball]

15. Yes. I think so too.

[GoCubsGo]

27. That was my conclusion, as well.

[Hortensis]

41. Umhm. Adolescent smartassery. :)

[AndJusticeForSome]

3. I have difficulty believing this

I believe the results may have been as reported, but I also believe it had to have been due to snark.

I can imagine myself, being given that quiz, answering anything but the obvious, just from the absurdity of the question.

I'm not buying it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. It's notable those saying 'flat' are more likely to be religious

Now, it's possible, of course, that they're playing a prank with that; or that the very religious have a liking for folling with pollsters. But it seems more likely it's because both are what they really believe.



https://today.yougov.com/topics/philosophy/articles-reports/2018/04/02/most-flat-earthers-consider-themselves-religious

[tblue37]

40. Like this (Remember?):

https://m.

[dalton99a]

4. Somebody's leg is being pulled

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. my first thought

Somebody ask me a question that stupid, I'll try to play with it.

[GWC58]

19. Well I'd say "the world is round, but my street

okay that’s flat!” 🥴🤪🤔

[mr_lebowski]

6. The world is not round ...

It is spherical.

Not perfectly, mind you, but close enough ...

I wish I could attribute this to snark, and it may be to SOME degree ... but there's a lot of fucking idiots out there.

There's legitimately probably 10% of younger people in the US who really don't even 'understand the question'. Like, they have SO little knowledge of historical questions and references, such that they would find themselves going 'well, it's flat right around here, but I know it's like a ball also, so ... I don't really get the question'. LIke they wouldn't understand the 'context' that 'in the distant past, many people thought the world was shaped like a disc, and not a sphere' ... they just don't even know that bit of history. So the question seems nonsensical to them.

[GWC58]

20. Wow, you're correct. She spins on her axis.

[hatrack]

28. Thank you!!

[Buns_of_Fire]

37. Technically, an "oblate spheroid." nt

[TheRealNorth]

8. The other third

are the children of deplorables who don't believe such deep-state conspiracies like a round earth, the moon landing, or the heliocentric theory.

[Hassler]

10. Who came blame them? Years of reduced funding has cut science education.

[First Speaker]

11. Somewhere H.L. Mencken is laughing his head off...

[TreasonousBastard]

12. It's that 16% "not sure" that worries me.

[anarch]

24. meh, I dunno...if I was asked the question that way, "do you believe the planet is round or flat?"

My instinct would be to say "No."

I'd basically have to go with "other/not sure" out of that list of potential responses. I believe the Earth to be a roughly spherical shape, in three dimensions; neither "round" nor "flat" would seem to sufficiently describe the actual shape that the planet empirically seems to be.

So, you've probably got at least a 3-4% segment of the interviewees who are just smartasses like that....

But yeah, the level of ignorance in our society is alarming. Intentionally engineered by sinister forces, I would say, so not unexpected...but alarming, for sure.

[VOX]

16. Future Republicans.

My joke is serious. Americans are clearly dumbing down at a rapid clip.

When so many actually **believe** in outlandish lies, practice oppressive and exclusionary religious beliefs, and openly embrace truly horrible, hate-filled people, something is radically wrong here.

[betsuni]

17. I'm still freaked out about young people supposedly not understanding analog clocks.

[Codeine]

18. Most people can't use an abacus or a slide rule.

Analog clocks are older tools which they’ve simply never used, maybe haven’t even really seen. It’s not altogether surprising, really.

I’ve two kids, and they both can use an analog clock because we have one in the living room and I taught them to use it. But in their normal day-to-day life clocks are digital and an old-fashioned circular clockface just isn’t a thing.

[betsuni]

21. So if those non-analogs watch the movie "Back to the Future" they don't get it?

Any movie where clocks are part of the plot, they're clueless? Town square clocks are a mystery? I don't get it. I can use an abacus and slide rule. I'm an idiot so if I can do it, I think it can't be so hard. I guess that's my problem.

[Codeine]

25. They'll obviously figure it out from context

I should imagine; I don’t think I’ve seen that film other than short clips, so maybe it’s not obvious?

All I’m saying is that any number of older tools end up being abandoned as they lose relevance. A world of ubiquitous digital clocks may end up mostly moving away from analog clock faces. Alternatively, they may gain some retro-chic fashion significance and end up everywhere again.

Either way, everyone will still know what time it is.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. The Examples In Your Title Are Not Surprising

Geez, calculators came out when i was in early HS and that was a long time ago. I can understand people not being able to use slide rules or an abacus.

But, a regular clock? People still wear watches. There are clock towers in tons of towns. Work places, even fast food joints, still have regular clocks on the wall.

Just surprised that clocks would be something people at that age don't fully grasp.

Like i said, the other two, for sure.

[Codeine]

30. You're right;

and that’s part of why I think this is probably an overstated issue. Most kids could probably still get by with a regular clock, but there’s every likelihood that a near-term future exists where clockfaces become something like the sundials that sit out in front of city halls and libraries.

[ProfessorGAC]

32. Funny Last Note

Our neighbor has a sundial.

It's in a spot where our sycamore, our silver oak, or our orientalis covers is up 80% of the day, then their mulberry tree covers it almost the rest of the time.

Then in the winter when there are no leaves, with the sun coming from farther south, their fir tree and house are in the way.

Even on clear days, their sundial actually tells the time about 2 hours a day for about 2/3rds of the year!

[RobinA]

47. I've Thought

(anecdotally, of course) that the slide to digital timepieces had sort of stopped where it was at a certain point. Seemed like there was a time when EVERY clock and watch HAD to be digital. Everybody with a watch had a digital. Now I seem to know more people with analog watches. If you go watch shopping at a middle of the road store they have more analogs than digitals. Personally, all my three watches are analog and I wouldn't even consider a digital after having had one. I found digitals harder to read than analogs and I have a number of inherited clocks that are pre-digital. My nephew can't read analog, so I guess there's room for both in this world.

[Hoyt]

45. Will be interesting to see how medical profession checks for dementia in 30 years. Drawing a clock

The Clock Drawing Test has been a common part of dementia screening for decades.

[still_one]

23. I have to believe those that answer flat or skeptical are playing around and not serious

[hatrack]

26. "Believe" that the earth is round?

Last edited Tue Dec 11, 2018, 09:57 AM - Edit history (1)

How about "are aware that" the earth is round? (Or, as pointed out above, spherical, to be precise).

Jesus Christ, pathetic on both sides - not the OP, the "journalist" who assembled this piece.

[Renew Deal]

29. How many are Anti-Vaxxers?

[samnsara]

31. ..and THIS group is gonna lead America into the next century?

..they shouldnt even be allowed to vote..

[ck4829]

35. Yeah, along with the group that taught them this! They clearly failed, right?

[demmiblue]

39. +1

That post deserves a this and a this .

[Codeine]

42. To be fair

we’ve been run by generations who believe every animal in existence descends from a mated pair rescued from a global flood on a big wooden boat, who believed the best way to treat a disease was cutting open the veins and allowing the patient to bleed for a while, and that the spinster lady with the herb garden and the midwifery skills was likely in league with the Devil himself.

We’ll get by.

[Mariana]

48. Whose failure is this, really?

Who were responsible for teaching them? Oh, right.

Before you go fantasizing about restricting their right to vote, perhaps you should take a look at which age groups tend to vote for which party. Those older folks you think are so much more knowing and wise mostly vote Republican.

[jberryhill]

33. Looks like 80% of DUers believe people answer polls truthfully

I virtually never answer survey questions truthfully.

Someone wants something from me for free so that they can make money. Ummm, no, they don’t get information from me for free.

[ck4829]

34. Hey, don't worry, only one third of Evangelicals believe the Earth orbits the Sun

[Mendocino]

46. I have a neighbor

that believes the sun is only about 50 miles from earth. He also thinks that all water only comes from rain or bubbles out of the ground. He thinks all water is "new".

[sanatanadharma]

36. Anyone have a disk magnet with center and circumferance poles?

I will speak not of polls or millennials, but of flat-earthers.

All it takes is a disk magnet to negate the possibility of a flat (disk) earth with a center pole and an opposite pole at the circumference.

[Sparkly]

38. Proof

If the earth were flat, cats would have knocked everything off of it by now.

(Sorry if you've heard that one. I probably read it here first.)

[Codeine]

43. And all the carpet at the edges of the Earth

would be torn up and shredded to shit.

[cbdo2007]

44. semantics...but they aren't asking if "the Earth" is round or flat, it says "the world" which could

have a different interpretation.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

49. 40% of Americans believe in young earth creation.

So, we know that people as a whole are not all that bright sometimes.

https://www.livescience.com/46123-many-americans-creationists.html

[dsc]

50. The choices are badly worded

say I thought the world was flat when I was say 2 or 3 but after that found out the world was round. No answer matches that.

[Sneederbunk]

51. Maybe they had to read the choices.

[Tiggeroshii]

52. Nah its cool. Lets keep slashing public school funding

People realize those are future teachers, right? Smdh

[haele]

53. Trolling is considered high art for the young, especially if they think the question is stupid.

In actuality, it's probably 90% will actually know (not believe - believe is the wrong word in this poll. Believing is a subjective condition), 10% have never considered the world around them and don't really care one way or the other.

Haele