Gapminder Misconception Study

[Strange]

Its April 1: International Ignorance Day, AKA April Fool’s Day.

Take Gapminder's test to see how much you know about the world: http://forms.gapminder.org/s3/test-2018

I got 77% (10/13)

[Strange]

The results of last year's test are pretty bad; only 10% of people did better than chance:

[michel123456]

Surprisingly humans and chimps share the 10% of 4 correct answers.

And chance can be calculated. I do not expect to give 4 correct answers. If there are 2 possible answers for each question, the chance is 50%. If there are more than 2 possible answers, chance drops dramatically.

And the fact that not any one human got the full score makes me think that the questions were especially quirky. I smell a hidden agenda.

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I made the test once not reading the questions and got only 23%  3 good answers.

 

I did it again and not knowing anything I got again a 23% 3 good answers. Very bad.

 

[Strange]

1 hour ago, michel123456 said:

I smell a hidden agenda.

As you will know by now, as you have done the test, the only agenda is to show how much people's preconceptions shape what they [think they] know about the world.

Perhaps I got 77% because I have watched lots of Hans Rosling's videos ...

 

[michel123456]

Well i wanted to double check the info gathered in this quiz and it is not so easy. It is not the kind of information I am used to.

For example question 7. I couldn't find the info from the U.N. And knowing about what a age pyramid is, the  quiz answer is counter intuitive.

Quote

 

7. The United Nations predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people. What is the main reason? *This question is required.

• There will be more children (under age 15).
• There will be more adults (15-75).
• There will be more very old people (above age 75).

 

 

 

 

.......................

Sorry for being paranoiac. I begin to like this site.

Edited April 3, 2018 by michel123456

[Strange]

You may find the info here: https://www.gapminder.org/data/

And visualised here: https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#_state_entities/_allpossible_show_$or@_un/_state:true;&_is--global:true;&_is--world/_4region:true;;;;;&data_/_lastModified:1522790311187&lastModified:1522790311187;&chart-type=popbyage

[michel123456]

10 hours ago, Strange said:

You may find the info here: https://www.gapminder.org/data/

And visualised here: https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#_state_entities/_allpossible_show_$or@_un/_state:true;&_is--global:true;&_is--world/_4region:true;;;;;&data_/_lastModified:1522790311187&lastModified:1522790311187;&chart-type=popbyage

When you want to double check something you need info from an outside source. I looked at the following from the U.N. World Population Prospects https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/files/key_findings_wpp_2015.pdf

 

Quoted from gapminder

Quote

There will be more adults (15-75).

 

To me an adult is not 15 and above. It is at least 18 and above.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult

IMHO there is a hidden agenda. Maybe good intentions but an agenda nonetheless. It is politics, not simple data.

 

Edited April 4, 2018 by michel123456

[CharonY]

10 hours ago, michel123456 said:

To me an adult is not 15 and above. It is at least 18 and above.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult

IMHO there is a hidden agenda. Maybe good intentions but an agenda nonetheless. It is politics, not simple data.

 

That is highly doubtful. Brackets often follow available data. If you look at most world data (say UN  ESA data) the population is often divided in 4-year brackets. Thus, there is a 15-19 bracket that divides children from adults (and note, they are not the dominating bracket). You could argue that they all should be counted as children. However, in many areas you will find most e.g. entering work force and/or being of reproductive age (especially when looking at historic data). Thus, for many purposes it makes more sense to treat the group as adults. You will note that they are based on the ESA data you mentioned, which obviously come to the same conclusion, of course. 

I am not sure what agenda you are suspecting, as the trends have been fairly obvious. The median age is going up (going above 40 by 2100), for example. And that is the simple consequence of folks getting older, and having fewer children, none of which is really a surprise, either. Some of the largest increases (again, using ESA data) are in the 35+ age bracket, btw. Though the highest relative increase are in the highest brackets, if I am doing the calculations correctly.

[Strange]

It also relates to the explanation of why the world population will continue to increase, even though average fertility has fallen below the replacement level. (Hans Rosling has, of course, a brilliant video explaining this using cardboard boxes.)

[CharonY]

Oh yeah, the replacement age is going up, which makes intuitive sense.