I know it’s odd, but the title of this post has little to do with the actual discussion.  Instead it reflects my thought process as I try to craft together some sentences which might express the degree of my amazement about society’s disconnect between their beliefs and reality.  Hopefully too, I’ll be able to accurately express how important this issue is.

What am I referring to you ask?  A new Zogby poll, which confirms again that humans, in this case Americans, seem unable or unwilling to face reality.  Using scientific polling methodology, the poll finds, within a +/- 2.1 percentage points, that  (whole thing here) :

Nearly three-in-four Americans (72%) believe most of the country is not politically engaged and does not follow the news from Washington closely….

&

…Despite the belief that most Americans do not pay attention to the news, 85% of Americans say they personally follow the news closely….

Now basic math proves, without any hesitation, that 85% of the population simply can not be above average.   In fairness, it is possible to say that I follow the news closely, but like others, am not engaged in the political process.

However, without grouping the questions, it would seem that this is an unlikely response due to the amount of thought process that one needs to take into account versus the amount of thought process most of give to pollsters.  Meaning, that in order for me to say, most people aren’t engaged enough and intend myself to be counted among those, but also say yes to following the news closely, requires a high degree of thought.

For instance, in one possibility, I might be saying I follow the news, but am not politically engaged enough because I don’t really like politics.   Getting to this decision however would require me to have thought of the two separate questions as more of a group.

It’s far more likely to say that these people believe that everyone else isn’t paying enough attention and everyone else is uninformed…. which is honestly, just stupefying…

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all that surprising that so many voters are wrong.  We’ve talked about it on here in reference to the public polling data which showed both a majority of Americans against more government intrusion into health care, but for a public option (here).  And this has been a topic of conversation for political scientists for ever, with Cato publishing a great  paper in 2007 which discusses in detail the The Myth of the Rational Voter (which in greater detail is presented in this book) which shows that the public holds economic views not shared by most economists.

For instance, most people believe in economic myths such as sending jobs overseas hurts us or that the change in gasoline prices was due mainly to oil companies and not the market itself.

We also know of constant polls showing Americans unable to identify national issues correctly.   In October of this year, Pew updated their polling of American’s knowledge (here):

…The Pew Research Center’s latest News IQ Quiz finds a mixed picture of public awareness on key issues, with majorities aware of some key facts on health care and the economy. But other questions stump large segments of the public, including the current size of the U.S. military commitment in Afghanistan, the approximate level of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the name of a key environmental proposal being debated in Congress….

With other polls of course saying the same about all kinds of issues, such as science and affirmative action.

So taking the known opinions of people with relation to their beliefs on how well they are informed and how well the public as a whole is informed – in conjunction with polling data which routinely reflects poor public knowledge – it seems we have a case of not only ignorance, but a very large blind spot.

The reason is the ability for a person to know what they don’t know, takes a higher level of knowledge and critical thinking skills, than for a person to understand only what they know.

For instance, many people these days would consider themselves computer savvy and within some degree this is true.  With the constant use of email, social networking sites, IM, presentation and documentation software and a litany of other things most people know about computers, people reasonably might consider themselves computer savvy.

However, without some additional training or self-education or schooling, it would be tough for most people to understand just the very basics of security design, even if they are well versed in virus & firewall software.

& This isn’t a negative.  Specialization of knowledge is extremely useful.  This allows people who operate a computer for mostly email the ability to be safe on the internet without needing to  understand the underlying fundamentals of security policies.  Due to specialization, we have ample experts from which to choose who will readily setup all of this for you.  Allowing you to know very little about the underlying facts, but potentially resulting in greater knowledge about firewall or administration programs.

Therefore, for the person to know that while they are well versed in many computer applications, the specificity of their knowledge base is still very limited, requires a degree of critical thinking.  Not only that, but we could go further.  If the polls are to be believed, people need to have better critical thinking abilities than the majority of the population currently has.

Honestly it really is a travesty that the most dynamic and innovative society of today to have an educational system which is failing to teach our students basic thinking skills.  I think this data among the other reams of data about public schools, shows a system in extreme need of an update if we are to succeed in really preparing people for understanding the world.  I’m not an educational expert by any means, but as a starting point I think I’d like to debate the merits of starting in elementary school teaching logic, philosophy, critical thinking, and other areas of inquiry designed specifically to help children learn to think… but I digress.

Regardless of potential solutions for education reform, we can all use this an example to help us question ourselves.  Just remember, when you’re reading that next poll which makes you wonder, “How do people believe this stuff?” – you might want to ask yourself if it’s really “the others” who are off base.