I always come back to this YouGov survey of Americans, showing us drastically overestimating the size of different groups. today.yougov.com/politics/art... - ThreadSky

santelli.bsky.social • 52 days ago

I always come back to this YouGov survey of Americans, showing us drastically overestimating the size of different groups.

https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/41556-americans-misestimate-small-subgroups-population

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ladyotreesyrup.bsky.social•52 days ago

How Americans see the US

rifka.bsky.social•45 days ago

1% trans isnt true btw. thats an undercount

dlsmith.dev•52 days ago

More than 90% of Americans live in California, Texas, or New York!

(I kind of think this means we need better-designed survey questions, but I also think it means we need more opportunities to confront cognitive dissonance.)

dlsmith.dev•52 days ago

Also fun that the number of White or Hispanic people in America is at most 3%+N, where N is (roughly) the number of mixed-race Black/Asian/Native American people.

santelli.bsky.social•52 days ago

Good point. I’d be interested to see the results of a similar survey with a different design: you have 100 points and you must allocate them based on the size of subgroups like religion, income levels, union membership, sexual orientation, etc.

dlsmith.dev•52 days ago

Similar to the "so you want to balance the budget" tools that are sometimes popular on news sites—force people to confront the trade-offs.

colinbwilliams.com•52 days ago

I feel like at least some of this is lingering race anxiety from a time when Euros were actually outnumbered by the people they were murdering and enslaving.

santelli.bsky.social•52 days ago

innumeracy and fear of out-groups make for a potent combo!

wyandot409.bsky.social•41 days ago

I always ask my Intro to Native Am class what the percent of Americans are Indigenous and get numbers that vary wildly, usually anywhere from 10% to 40% They are surprised to learn it's just under 2 now

hammhawk.bsky.social•52 days ago

This is really fascinating to me, as a social psychologist. I'll be using these data in class for discussions of the availability heuristic or speculating on other explanations for these.

There's always a risk in saying, "Well, there aren't many of them, so who cares about their rights..."

pjrodriguez.bsky.social•52 days ago

I think this broader point is key. Of course marginal groups deserve the same respect and privilege as others, but also the rest of society *always* assumes these groups are more dominant than they actually are.

bganderson.bsky.social•52 days ago

This feels like it bookends with those studies that say men start thinking that women are "dominating" a group when they only make up 30% (IIRC) of said group.

emilystjams.bsky.social•52 days ago

Yes, and this:

https://bsky.app/profile/cydharrell.bsky.social/post/3lep4vlck5k2j

thisfoxhere.bsky.social•52 days ago

Was mentally commiserating over the Teaching statement when I saw the Cheerleading statement.

Cheerleading has always seemed ond of the weirder things about their weird country, but I need to go search up more about these male cheerleaders. That is wild...

emilystjams.bsky.social•52 days ago

George W. Bush was a cheerleader.

bganderson.bsky.social•51 days ago

Indeed, the first thought that came to mind.

Cheerleading is a singular tradition to North America, as far as I know, but it might make more sense to realize it's traditionally been connected to universities, which were heavily male dominated until the 20th century.

pjrodriguez.bsky.social•51 days ago

“Yell leaders of their day included Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.”

pjrodriguez.bsky.social•51 days ago

Huh. “Cheerleading originated in the late 19th century as a male-only activity. Women only began joining cheerleading teams in the 1920s, and their participation remained limited until the 1940s and 1950s, when World War II created opportunities for women to take on roles traditionally held by men.”

plaguedaemon.bsky.social•51 days ago

what do they have elsewhere? cheer ANARCHY?

bganderson.bsky.social•51 days ago

No doubt a democratic social cheer-safety net of a sort Americans are unwilling to fund.

thisfoxhere.bsky.social•51 days ago

We have sports. We have fans of sports.
Cheerleading isn't necessary for those two things.

I was mystified by cheerleading at first, as it just seemed to be girls doing gymnastics & showing their panties during gaps in play. Took me a while to realise yanks need to be told when to clap.

theshawnmorris.bsky.social•52 days ago

30% live in New York City? What

ladyotreesyrup.bsky.social•52 days ago

It’s a very big apple!

botanista.bsky.social•52 days ago

Really interesting that according to these numbers, a whole 10% of the population live somewhere other than ny, tx, and ca.

santelli.bsky.social•52 days ago

You can almost understand the fear that "if you got rid of the electoral college, they'd just campaign in New York in California!!!" when you consider that many Americans seem to believe that 200 million people live in New York and California.

manticorn.bsky.social•52 days ago

God I fucking WISH all this shit were true

samanthanelson.bsky.social•51 days ago

I really love that NYC is imagined to be as populous as California or Texas.

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