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Americans overestimate the size of minority groups and underestimate the size of most majority groups (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Wulri@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world

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

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[-] Subversive@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

64% white
39% hispanic
41% black
29% asian
30% jewish
27% native americans

All the 230% of US population.

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[-] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago

What morons did they ask? Holy shit.

[-] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Here's the methodology according to the YouGov website:

Methodology: This article includes findings from two U.S. News surveys conducted by YouGov on two nationally representative samples of 1,000 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online from January 14-20, 2022. The first survey included questions on groups involving race, education, income, family, gender, and sexuality, while the second survey included questions on religion, politics, and other miscellaneous groups. The samples were weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the 2018 American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as 2016 and 2020 Presidential votes (or non-votes). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. citizens. Real proportions were taken from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, YouGov’s internal poll results, and the results of other well-established polling firms. Most estimates were collected within the past three years; the oldest is from 2009. Because the real estimates presented cover a range of time periods, they may differ from actual population sizes at the time our survey was conducted.

[-] Eheran@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Sample size of 1000 is absolutely nothing for so many detailed/granular questions. Let alone then weighing the few sub-groups etc.

[-] Poxlox@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I did a quick check on one of the facts, the christian one, this says 70% in 2022 but i see 62% for 2022, which is a lot closer to the 58% estimate. Makes me feel a bit sketched out about possible cherry picking, but cool notion still.

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 1 points 2 weeks ago

5% of Americans own a car but not a drivers licence.

[-] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

The actual problem is that if you show this data to the respondents, they wouldn't change their answers.

[-] sircac@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I think this bias happens a bit anywhere where there is a limited range to opinion about, may be the interesting part is where is the tilt point, with the corresponding error estimation...

[-] DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

Just like their IQ.

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 weeks ago

Imagine thinking 1 in 5 people are trans... Just... This has to be a math understanding issue, right??

[-] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 3 weeks ago

For sure. Many Americans are confused by percentages. They do not understand that 20% is equivalent to saying "in a room of 100 people, 20 of them are trans", and even if they did understand that, they wouldn't have the proactive reasoning to make sure their percentage estimates add up/overlap in a way that makes sense, e.g not implying that 20 people in the room are all Hispanic Asian atheist Catholic bisexual transgender millionaires.

[-] dinckelman@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

We’re talking about a population, where a 1/3lbs burger was rejected for being smaller than the 1/4lbs. But even besides that, the fear-mongering, and the propaganda, have clearly worked