A new urban myth seems to be gathering pace on the Internet. The story relates to a piece of research purportedly carried out by a Professor Mark Fultz of the Chicago School of Behavioral Science which show that 39% of US citizens should not be entitled to an opinion. The reports claim the study has found that the views of 39% of the US population are so misinformed as to be damaging to society. The report finishes with a line saying that the same team conducted a study in 2002 which found that brainstorming can generate bad ideas and dumb questions.
Over the last few days I have seen several reports linking back to the story, with the original reference being in The Onion.
The structure of the story follows several of the rules for creating a sticky idea. It borrows the authority of an organisation that might plausibly exist and the title professor. It reports a specific number (39%) and uses the sort of deadpan tone that a press release from an academic piece of research is commonly believed to use, and its findings play to the prejudices of most people. No doubt Republicans will feel the 39% with damaging opinions are mostly Democrats, whilst Democrats will feel that they are mostly Republicans.
Perhaps people who picked up on the story should have been more cautious of the source. The Onion is an award winning parody newspaper. Today’s stories include: “Dog breeders issue massive recall of ’07 Pugs”, “Al Qaeda also fed up with Ground Zero Construction Delays”, and my favourite “Kentucky DMV introduces game of chicken to drivers test”.
Comments