The British Public is Just as Fearfully Ill-Informed as the U.S. Public

A nifty poll found that British people think the world is scarier than it really is on welfare fraud, immigration, race, crime, teen pregnancy, unemployment benefits, and foreign aid. These are the same issues that most Americans are way off about.  

For example, "On the issue of ethnicity, black and Asian people are thought to make up 30 per cent of the population, when the figure is closer to 11 per cent."  My own surveys that most Americans think the black proportion of the U.S. population is about 1/3, whereas the real fraction is 13%.

I think the root of the problem is not poor education or reasoning ability.  It is not really a media problem, though the media makes it worse.

It is a fear problem. When we address the majority’s fear, they will be more open to facts.