Who Are the Biggest Bullshitters?

There have been many posts and at least one large thread about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19749130

Don't miss the salient fact that it was all a study of 15-year-olds.

The methodology here is awful, and no one should draw broad conclusions from the results.

> They inserted a section into the questionnaire which asked students how well they understood a collection of 16 mathematical concepts. Some were familiar, such as “polygon” and “probability”, but three were fake: “proper number”, “subjunctive scaling” and “declarative fraction”.

Proper number and declarative fraction sound like real things. I speak English natively, and it would take me a while to decide whether those are simple childhood-level concepts or not.

For someone who is not expecting a fake option or who doesn't speak English natively, it's likely you'd be confused by the familiarity of the wording.

I personally can't think of a fraction-related concept that I don't understand, so I could see myself saying I understand declarative fractions with no intent to mislead someone.

Further, the subjects of the experiment are teenagers. That's one narrow band of ages, and it says little about the rest of the country.

This is a study designed to get attention and media coverage, not to actually reveal some useful truth.

This is not saying anything about anyone. It's a school test for children. Bullshitting (or rather guessing) is exactly what you should be doing in this situation so you can try to get some partial points for whatever you might have gotten right.

It's saying more about who is disillusioned about the education system and understands how to score well.

Real estate agents, surely.