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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Voter Misperceptions - Left and Right
2021-04-17
[Just Facts.com] During the late 1800s when the renowned scientist Louis Pasteur was trying to overturn the medical community's deadly belief that germs are not communicable, he wrote: "The greatest aberration of the mind is to believe a thing to be, because we desire it." The results of a scientific survey conducted just after the 2020 presidential election show that voters from across the political spectrum have failed to heed that warning.
Or were blissfully unaware of said "warning".
The survey, commissioned by Just Facts, reveals that the vast bulk of voters have embraced false and harmful dogmas that accord with their political views. This is a typical consequence of confirmation bias, the human tendency to reflexively accept anything that accords with one's preexisting beliefs and ignore or twist everything that defies them.

While most polls measure public opinion, this annual scientific survey measures voters' perceptions of issues that can have major impacts on their lives. This year's survey used an entirely new set of questions that addressed the topics of Covid-19, income, poverty, racial disparities, global warming, drug overdoses, life expectancy, pollution, and the national debt.
They also provide the 'correct' answers, with which some may disagree.
Some illuminating examples of the misconceptions held by voters with differing political preferences include the following:

  • 76% of Trump voters think that the average income of middle-income households fell during the Obama administration. In reality, their inflation-adjusted average income rose by $5,300 during this period.
    I wonder of O changed the definition of "middle-income"?
  • 88% of Biden voters think that police are more likely to use lethal force when arresting black people than white people. In reality, police are 42% less likely to use lethal force when arresting blacks than whites.
    Hmmmmm....
  • The survey also found that a considerable portion of Trump voters have adopted some progressive fallacies spread by the media. For instance, 38% of Trump voters (and 86% of Biden voters) think that the number of strong-to-violent tornadoes in the U.S. has generally increased since the 1950s. In reality, they have slightly decreased.
    The science is unsettled? I was surprised by a couple of correct answers. Unexpectedly.
    Posted by:Bobby

    #9  WRT increased income under Obama; income may have actually gone up, but any increase was supplanted by horrific tax payments resulting in a net decrease in middle income and assets.
    Posted by: Phusolet Gloluper1146   2021-04-17 21:50  

    #8  Doesn't this show a complete and total failure of the education system and the media. There should be a class action lawsuit.
    Posted by: ruprecht   2021-04-17 18:25  

    #7  What I got from the whole article was that the average American is not terribly bright, and made consistently dimmer by the biased, slanted, bottom-feeding media they claim to not believe in. Ironic, eh?
    Posted by: Bobby   2021-04-17 17:27  

    #6  "My vote counts."
    Posted by: Skidmark   2021-04-17 15:07  

    #5  ^ Essentially, we're still paying for the New Deal.
    Posted by: Matt   2021-04-17 14:44  

    #4  There is no 'adjustment for inflation", rather it is debasing of the currency. Long, long ago, but within my lifetime you could walk in to a bank and exchange (silver certificate) paper dollars for 10 silver dimes, 4 silver quarters, 2 silver half dollars or one silver dollar. Today they give you federal reserve note dollars. Extrapolating that the silver in those old coins (90%) is now worth around $20 (frn) dollars, they debased the currency to 1/5th of the original.
    Posted by: Procopius2k   2021-04-17 12:23  

    #3   Adjusted for inflation, there has never been any inflation. So there!
    Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843   2021-04-17 11:09  

    #2  "inflation-adjusted average income" Calculating the rate of inflation can be adjusted by choosing the benchmark commodities and has been. If "Joe Average" looks at what they are buying and it costs more than there IS inflation.
    Posted by: magpie   2021-04-17 10:05  

    #1  "The greatest aberration of the mind is to believe a thing to be, because we desire it."

    "Wants what he wants when he wants it – and thinks that constitutes a natural law" - Robert Heinlein
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2021-04-17 04:22  

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