A recent Pew Research Center survey found younger people (ages 18 to 49) were better able to distinguish facts from opinions than older people.
Jeffrey Gottfried at Pew reported, “About a third of 18- to 49-year-olds (32 percent) correctly identified all five of the factual statements as factual, compared with two-in-ten among those ages 50 and older. A similar pattern emerges for the opinion statements. Among 18- to 49-year-olds, 44 percent correctly identified all five opinion statements as opinions, compared with 26 percent among those ages 50 and older.”
Pew concluded younger Americans, especially millennials, were better able to distinguish fact from opinion than older Americans because young people tend to be more digitally savvy and also tend not to have a strong affiliation to either political party.
If you’re ready to test your acumen, visit the Pew Research Center website and search for ‘Quiz: How well can you tell factual from opinion statements?’
Weekly Commentary for October 29, 2018
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