This seems to be a textbook example of the Dunning-Kruger effect: the people who know least are the most willing to take action, because their ignorance blinds them to the impracticality and potential consequences of that action.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect</a>
How did they ask people to locate Ukraine? Some of these points look like somebody accidentally clicked on a random spot of a map. For example, the dot below New Zealand is in the middle of the ocean (approx. -55.000000,176.000000). Some even located it within the US (Florida seems to be a popular guess). Have they found really misinformed people or is this noise in the data?
I see lots of numbers in there, but none relating to a desire for military action, save for the fact they're "95% confident" that people who don't know where Ukraine is are more likely to support military action. <i>How much</i> more likely are they?
This makes sense, no? With less knowledge about the Ukraine and hence less information about the ties and affinity parts of its population have to Russia, the more aggressive Russia seems. Without that knowledge, you just have to take the prior assumption that Ukraine is just like any other country, no specific link to Russia - and given that, the breach of sovereignty seems more egregious than it is in this specific situation.
I don't dispute the conclusion of this study, but this might be a great example of when the choice of map projection used has a significant consequences.<p>For example, would Greenland have been chosen so many times if a projection were used that didn't make it look so huge?
Many replies here try to dispute the methodology and UX in the survey. When it comes to geography, you either know it, or you don't.<p>The distance from Ukraine for many data points is so big, that you can't possibly write it down to projection/UX.
Reminds me of this video. As an American it makes me sad.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0TK_vk-XDM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0TK_vk-XDM</a>
I suppose it will be big surprise to many people (even some russians) to know, that first capital of ancient Russia was Kiev, current capital of Ukraine ;)
So what? Most people in Europe do not know where Washington state is.<p>Anyway US already intervened in Ukraine several times. I just hope this will not become another Iraq.
Where's the map where they baseline people identifying something in the US (or other map points with higher likely familiarity) correctly as well? That would help clear out some noise.<p>Secondly. Who cares at this point? Seems like Putin keeps Crimea on the basis of some familiar reasoning that bodes poorly for outcomes here. There is no appetite or willing money for military intervention at scale.
Most interesting tidbit for me: "self-identified independents (29 percent correct) outperformed both Democrats (14 percent correct) and Republicans (15 percent correct)"<p>Edit: Removed inflammatory language about Democrats and Republicans and will let the numbers speak for themselves.
Although I find it interesting, what's the point of the article other than "look how most Americans are ignorant about world geography"?<p>And what do I gain from it?