The Pew Research Center for People and the Press has released the results of their latest News IQ Quiz.
Partisans across the political spectrum will be interested in the results of the twelve questions Pew asked.
As it turns out, among respondents:
77% know that the budget deficit larger than in the 90s.
41% know that relations between Pakistan and India are unfriendly.
75% know that Republicans did the best in the midterms but
only 38% could pick John Boehner out of four names as the next Speaker of the House;
and 46% know that Republicans will be in the majority only in the House of Representatives in January.
15% could recognize the name of Great Britain’s Prime Minister.
64% knew that we have a trade deficit.
14% accurately recognized the inflation rate at 1%.
16% knew that more than half of the TARP bank bailout money has been re-payed to the federal government.
53% picked the unemployment rate correctly at about 10%.
39% could pick the highest area of federal spending from a list of four categories
and 26% recognized Android as the Google operating system for smartphones.
These statistics are cautionary for activists of all stripes. On average, Americans answered 42% of these rather simple multiple-choice questions correctly. College graduates did little better – getting only 56% of the answers correct. In general, it seems like it’s a good thing Americans weren’t being graded on their answers.
As First Thoughts asked in response, “Do we really know enough to govern ourselves?”
