On the Tweetersphere I found some research by Ipsos/Mori about differences, well chasms between what people think about controversial issues and reality. I example:- Aggregated we think as a nation that 15% of under 16 year-old girls get pregnant every year ... the real figure is 0.6% - 20 times lower!
On Crime 58% of us do not believe that crime is falling, but the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that incidents of crime were 19% lower in 2012 than in 2006/07 and 53% lower than in 1995. 51% think violent crime is rising, when it has fallen from almost 2.5 million incidents in 2006/07 to under 2 million in 2012.
On benefits "spongers", 29% think we spend more on JSA than pensions, when in fact we spend 15 times more on pensions (£4.9bn vs £74.2bn). Collectively we think that 24% of benefits is claimed by "cheats", the actual figure is around 0.7% A quarter of us think overseas aid is in the top 2-3 items government spends, when it actually made up 1.1% of expenditure (£7.9bn) in the 2011/12 financial year. More people select this as a top item of expenditure than pensions (which cost nearly ten times as much, £74bn) and education in the UK (£51.5bn).
I could go on & on & on ... but listening to some "informed" discussions, there are those who would never let facts get in the way of a good row!
Perhaps we should ask people to explain how and where they get there standpoints from?
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