1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says

How can this be? Perhaps, their sample is biased? It would really be sad if 25% of Americans really have this misconception - not to mention the similarly high percentages for other countries.

International comparisons were also done: US respondents answered the question about the Earth going around the Sun correctly (74%) more often than Europeans (66%). South Koreans answered this correctly 86% of the time.

There were a couple of politically charged questions on the survey:

1. The universe began with a big bang: US answered True only 39% of the time.

2. Human beings evolved from earlier species: US answered True 48% of the time.

Across all 9 survey questions, US respondents answered correctly 65% of the time. Education level was a major factor: "those who had not completed high school answered 45% of the nine questions correctly, and those who had completed a bachelor's degree answered 78% of the questions correctly. The average percentage correct rose to 83% among those who had taken three or more science and mathematics courses in college..." (page 7-20).