>Examples of the sorts of questions asked
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>1. If you bought four packs of tea: chamomile ($4.60), green ($4.15), black ($3.35) and lemon ($1.80) with a $20 note, how much change would you get?<p>Put yourself in the mind of somebody taking this questionnaire. Do you actually <i>care</i> if the answer is correct? Will you lose money if you get the answer wrong? Are you in a hurry to finish the questionnaire and go and do something else?<p>Now put yourself in the mind of a lobbyist who represents utilities companies, financial services companies and HMOs. Your customers have all come under fire because they have needlessly complicated pricing structures designed to confuse people. This is a <i>very</i> profitable practice so they want to continue doing it, but they'd like to draw attention away from it. Regulators sometimes come under political pressure to do something about it (among others, Elizabeth Warren has put this kind of pressure on, and they <i>hate</i> her for it).<p>If, as a lobbyist, if you get others to reframe the issue as one of "lack of financial literacy" it helps take the heat off your customers. However, It's all very well saying "people just need to become more financially literate!" but that wouldn't sound very convincing coming from a lobbyist representing a company that has a financial stake in everybody believing it.<p>Therefore, it's better to be able to get your media contacts and politician friends say "<i>studies say</i> people need to become more financially literate". There is, as such, a demand for studies like this.<p>And, Aditi Bhutoria, John Jerrim and Anna Vignoles happily (although possibly unknowingly) filled this demand by giving a bunch of random, disinterested people a math quiz where it didn't matter if they got the answers wrong and calling it "science".