In America, the young find distinguishing fact from opinion easier than their elders

from Boing Boing:

A recent Pew poll challenged subjects to distinguish between factual statements and statements of opinion in news articles; it found that there is a large gap in accuracy between 18- to 49-year-olds (32% of whom correctly labeled 100% of the facts, and 44% of whom correct labeled 100% of the opinions) and those aged 50 and up (20% correctly labeled all facts; 26% correctly labeled all opinions).

Young people performed well regardless of the ideological nature of the facts and opinions, while older subjects' ability to sort fact from opinion was more likely to struggle when such sorting cut against their ideological bias.

For example, 63% of 18- to 49-year-olds correctly identified the following factual statement, one which was deemed to appeal more to the right: “Spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid make up the largest portion of the U.S. federal budget.” About half of those ages 50 and older (51%) correctly classified the same statement. Additionally, 18- to 49-year-olds were 12 percentage points more likely than those at least 50 years of age (60% vs. 48%, respectively) to correctly categorize the following factual statement, which was deemed to be more appealing to the ideological left: “Immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally have some rights under the Constitution.”

Among the opinion statements, roughly three-quarters of 18- to 49-year-olds (77%) correctly identified the following opinion statement, one that appeals more to the ideological right – “Government is almost always wasteful and inefficient” – compared with about two-thirds of older Americans (65%). And younger Americans were slightly more likely than older adults (82% vs. 78%, respectively) to correctly categorize this opinion statement, one appealing more to the left: “Abortion should be legal in most cases.”

Younger Americans are better than older Americans at telling factual news statements from opinions [Jeffrey Gottfried and Elizabeth Grieco/Pew]

Even more Things You Probably Didn’t Know About NYC

31. There was one homicide on 9/11, and it remains unsolved. 

32. There are “fake” buildings in the city that are used for subway maintenance and ventilation. The building below in the middle, located in Brooklyn, has a fake facade. There is no brownstone within. 

Google Maps 

33. Chernobyl is closer to New York than Fukushima is to L.A. 

34. There are more undergrad and graduate students in NYC than Boston has people. 

35. New York City’s 520-mile coastline is longer than those of Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco combined.  

36. The Empire State building has its own zip code. 

37. The East River is not a river, it’s a tidal estuary. 

38. There is a secret train platform in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. 

Charles Mostoller / Barcroft Media / Getty Images

39. When the Dutch first arrived to Manhattan, there were massive oyster beds. In fact, Ellis Island and Liberty Island were called Little Oyster and Big Oyster Island.

from BUZZFEED

MORE Things You Probably Didn’t Know About NYC

21. There’s a wind tunnel near the Flat Iron building that can raise women’s skirts. Men used to gather outside of the Flat Iron building to watch. 

Via mcnyblog.org 

22. The borough of Brooklyn on its own would be the fourth largest city in the United States. Queens would also rank fourth nationally. 

23. New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia. 

24. New York has the largest Puerto Rican population of any city in the world. 

25. PONY stands for Product of New York. 

i.imgur.com 

26. In 1920, a horse-drawn carriage filled with explosives was detonated on Wall Street killing 30 people. No one was ever caught, and it is considered to be one of the first acts of domestic terrorism.  

27. In nine years, Madison Square Garden’s lease will run out and it will have to move. 

28. UPS, FedEx, and other commercial delivery companies receive up to 7,000 parking tickets a DAY, contributing up to $120 million in revenue for the city of New York. 

29. It can cost over $289,000 for a one-year hot dog stand permit in Central Park. 

The New York Times / Via nytimes.com 

30. Sixty percent of cigarettes sold in NYC are illegally smuggled from other states.