Random political stuff - old news, or not news

[briantrumpet]

I'm reminded of the - Did you see the bear? video.
People's perceptions tell them what they want to see irrespective of the truth.

Ah, another 'Invisible gorilla' video. I can see where you're coming from, but I'm not actually sure that it's the same phenomenon: the gorilla/bear isn't to do with beliefs, more to do with how brains necessarily have to simplify visual processing, whereas the confirmation bias thing is an incuriousness about facts per se, and all too often a positive searching for 'facts' that confirm one's biases... it's where the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories are born (or rather 'dug').

 

[Beebo]

Surprised at the trans number, I thought it would be way lower.

It’s probably about right. 6 in 1000.
I was surprised by the vegetarian- 4% seems very low.

 

[briantrumpet]

It’s probably about right. 6 in 1000.
I was surprised by the vegetarian- 4% seems very low.

I'm hoping the poster links the source, as it seems very specific. I think it might be about right, given that (I suspect) vegetarianism is more popular amongst the young and educated, so one's own circle of acquaintances might not be representative (plus one tends to register the vegetarians amongst one's friends, so as not to serve up a carnivorous faux pas).

 

[Pblakeney]

Ah, another 'Invisible gorilla' video. I can see where you're coming from, but I'm not actually sure that it's the same phenomenon: the gorilla/bear isn't to do with beliefs, more to do with how brains necessarily have to simplify visual processing, whereas the confirmation bias thing is an incuriousness about facts per se, and all too often a positive searching for 'facts' that confirm one's biases... it's where the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories are born (or rather 'dug').

I’m not going to overthink it. Basically people see what they want to see. Good or bad.

 

[briantrumpet]

I’m not going to overthink it. Basically people see what they want to see. Good or bad.

I thought I just thought it, but hey ho. I'm two glasses of CdR down, so I don't care now. 😜

 

[Pross]

It’s probably about right. 6 in 1000.
I was surprised by the vegetarian- 4% seems very low.

One person in every 167 you see still seems very high especially if it’s including children. I genuinely can’t think what goes through peoples heads that they think it applies to 1:20 people though.

 

[briantrumpet]

One person in every 167 you see still seems very high especially if it’s including children. I genuinely can’t think what goes through peoples heads that they think it applies to 1:20 people though.

This is from the 2021 census:

"People aged 16 to 24 years were the most likely age group to have said that their gender identity was different from their sex registered at birth (in this article we refer to people in this category as being trans), with 1.00% (63,000) identifying as such. This compares with 0.54% (262,000) of the overall population who identified as trans. The proportion of people who identified as trans decreased with each successive age group.

 

[briantrumpet]

Obviously there's a separate thread for this specific discussion, but this figure makes me think that the wider figures quoted are drawn from an opinion poll and the 2021 census (even if it should have been rounded down to 0.5% in this case).

 

[AndyRM]

Considering people's perceptions are governed by the media they consume I'm surprised that more of those figures aren't through the roof.

 

[Dorset Boy]

It's really hard to have rational debate when perceptions are so skewed, and so far away from reality. I'm not sure how you deal with this, especially when those wanting to foment division are only to happy to maintain these faulty perceptions.

(The poster here is anything but an unbiased commentator — they are very left wing — but I'm assuming that these stats are reasonably accurate.)

View attachment 15594

A quick Google suggests over 6% of UK are Muslim and over 4% are black, though over 13.5% of Londoners are black.
10-12% are vegan or vegetarian

 

[First Aspect]

Ah, another 'Invisible gorilla' video. I can see where you're coming from, but I'm not actually sure that it's the same phenomenon: the gorilla/bear isn't to do with beliefs, more to do with how brains necessarily have to simplify visual processing, whereas the confirmation bias thing is an incuriousness about facts per se, and all too often a positive searching for 'facts' that confirm one's biases... it's where the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories are born (or rather 'dug').

It is confirmation bias. People are being told relentlessly, for example, that we are being inundated with immigrants. So if that disturbs your gammon and scrambled egg brain, you will be alert to all of "them".

Kind of the same thing as with rule breaking cyclists. Thet are everywhere, because of the invisible rule obeying cyclists and invisible rule breaking motorists.

 

[briantrumpet]

A quick Google suggests over 6% of UK are Muslim and over 4% are black, though over 13.5% of Londoners are black.
10-12% are vegan or vegetarian

Maybe Google isn't correct in all matters statistical. I think it's unlikely that the Vegetarian Society would understate the figure. And it's not too far away from this long-term large-scale government report, which suggests ~3% https://www.gov.uk/government/stati...diet-and-nutrition-survey-2019-to-2023-report

 

[AndyRM]

When a post begins with "A quick Google..." You can usually stop right there.

 

[Dorset Boy]

That looks like a figure from a 2018/19 survey judging by yhe reference, so well out of date.

 

[Dorset Boy]

When a post begins with "A quick Google..." You can usually stop right there.

Yawn