Pew Research's Quiz: How well can you tell factual from opinion statements?

Pew Research created a survey that asks participants to identify news statements as opinions or facts. They had 5000+ complete this survey AND you can complete the survey and see your results.

Description of quiz AND research methodology!

An example question from the survey. This one made me think of Ron Swanson.

How to use in Stats/RM:

1. A good way of introducing the truism "The plural of anecdote isn't data.". Facts and opinions aren't always the same thing, and distinguishing between the two is key to scientific thinking. Ask your student think of of objective data that could prove or disprove these statements. Get them thinking like researchers, developing hypotheses AND operationalizing those hypotheses.

2. At the end of the quiz, they describe your score in terms of percentiles. Specifically, in terms of the percentages of users who scored above and below you on the quiz items.

3. You can also access Pew's report of their survey findings, which further divide up research participants (by political party, by self-reported trust in the news, by self-reported interest in the news, etc.).

Comments

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