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Offline Pete Svarrior

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4% of Poles Believe the Earth is Flat
« on: July 21, 2021, 10:19:50 AM »
It would seem that the Polish Nationwide Research Group conducted research into Polish citizens' belief in "conspiracy theories" in late January 2021. The original source appears to be behind a paywall (and it wouldn't take my credit card - I swear I'm not that broke; I'll keep trying), but a couple of news articles in relatively reputable media have covered it as a story:

https://www.polsatnews.pl/wiadomosc/2021-02-26/11-proc-polakow-uwaza-ze-amerykanie-nie-wyladowali-na-ksiezycu-4-proc-ze-ziemia-jest-plaska/
https://wiadomosci.radiozet.pl/Polska/Teorie-spiskowe-w-Polsce.-4-proc.-wierzy-ze-Ziemia-jest-plaska.-11-proc.-nie-wierzy-w-ladowanie-na-Ksiezycu

Unfortunately, I was unable to find anything in English, but Google Translate seems to spit out a pretty reasonable translation for these.

Based on these articles, it would seem that:
  • 4% of Poles believe that the Earth is flat, significantly lagging behind the 11% of moon landing sceptics
  • The belief is particularly popular in smaller cities and towns, at 5.6%
  • The age group most likely to believe in a Flat Earth is around the age of 30, with just over 6% of believers
  • 5% of Law and Justice (PiS) voters believe the Earth is flat, in stark contrast to 0% among Polish People's Party (PSL) voters. Similarly, PiS voters are much more likely to believe that the moon landing was a hoax, with those voting for the Left Together (Lewica Razem) being least likely to follow this belief.

According to both articles, this poll was performed on a sample size of 1001 Polish adults, which is pretty impressive for such a niche subject. I hope we can get to the original source to see if there's more detail to get out of it. If anyone has more luck with it than I did, help would be very much appreciated.
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Offline AATW

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Re: 4% of Poles Believe the Earth is Flat
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2021, 10:40:40 AM »
I work with Polish teams quite a lot. I'll send these to them to see if they can glean anything useful.
Tom: "Claiming incredulity is a pretty bad argument. Calling it "insane" or "ridiculous" is not a good argument at all."

TFES Wiki Occam's Razor page, by Tom: "What's the simplest explanation; that NASA has successfully designed and invented never before seen rocket technologies from scratch which can accelerate 100 tons of matter to an escape velocity of 7 miles per second"

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: 4% of Poles Believe the Earth is Flat
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2021, 10:41:43 AM »
I work with Polish teams quite a lot. I'll send these to them to see if they can glean anything useful.
Thank you!

In the meantime, I managed to sign up for a trial of their OGB Pro service, which granted me access to the original report. I'll make copies available here soon.
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Offline AATW

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Re: 4% of Poles Believe the Earth is Flat
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2021, 11:46:34 AM »
I didn't get much insight, but my Polish bff said:

Quote
"not big sample - but yes, those who vote for Law and Justice party (the "traditional" right sided party) and related parties are showing more and more troubling approach to reality"

(I have asked her if she is assuming this correlation - as in, I doubt that's in the data, she hasn't replied yet)
Tom: "Claiming incredulity is a pretty bad argument. Calling it "insane" or "ridiculous" is not a good argument at all."

TFES Wiki Occam's Razor page, by Tom: "What's the simplest explanation; that NASA has successfully designed and invented never before seen rocket technologies from scratch which can accelerate 100 tons of matter to an escape velocity of 7 miles per second"

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: 4% of Poles Believe the Earth is Flat
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2021, 11:52:21 AM »
Yeah, people really struggle with sample sizes. 1001 is well above average, as long as the methodology isn't skewed.

From what I can see in the report, they did explicitly query political beliefs, so the correlation is actually in the data.
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Offline Tom Bishop

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Re: 4% of Poles Believe the Earth is Flat
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2021, 10:11:29 PM »
Since one party got 5% and the other party got 0% it would suggest that people didn't just select it as a joke.

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: 4% of Poles Believe the Earth is Flat
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2021, 05:13:19 PM »
Apologies - this took forever to sort out. They've made the report available in some weird JS-based abomination that "reads just like a real book!1!!!", so I couldn't export it to a "normal" format.

Eventually, I gave up and just took screenshots of the relevant pages. Not proud of that solution, but at least it gets us something. Here they are, together with a crude, mostly automatic, translation:




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METHODOLOGY
The data contained in the report come from a survey of Poles' opinions, which was carried out by the Institute for Public Affairs (Nationwide Research Group) on 25-26.01.2021, using the CATI method. A representative sample of N = 1001 adult Polish residents was tested. The sample was selected in a quota-random manner based on the following criteria: gender, age, town size and voivodship (data according to the Central Statistical Office).

Delivery time:
25-26 JANUARY 2021
Sample size
N = 1001
ADULT RESIDENTS OF POLAND
Research method
CATI
COMPUTER ASSISTED TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS

SIZE OF LOCALITY:
39.58% Countryside
13.25% City up to 20,000
18.14% City 20,000-100,000
16.78% City 100,000-500,000
12.25% City >500,000


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THE EARTH IS REALLY FLAT, NOT SPHERICAL
We asked respondents if they agreed with the theory that the Earth is in fact flat, not spherical, and that this fact is being hidden by the scientific community? Out of the theories discussed, this is the least popular one among Poles.

4% of Poles believe that the Earth is in fact flat

91.54% - I do not believe
4.43% - Neither believe, nor disbelieve
4.03% - I believe

Only 4.03% of the inhabitants of Poland believe that the Earth is in fact flat, not spherical, and this fact is, in their opinion, hidden by the scientific community. 4.43% of Poles do not have an opinion on this subject, and as many as 91.54% do not believe this theory. Interestingly, women (4.48%) are slightly more inclined to believe than men (3.53%). Also, slightly more Polish women have a neutral opinion on this subject.


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THE THEORY THAT THE EARTH IS NOT SPHERICAL IS MOST COMMONLY QUESTIONED BY 30-YEAR-OLDS [n.b. I strongly suspect they meant the opposite of that - ~pete]

Nearly 3 times more Poles in the 30-39 age group (6.03%) than in the 40-49 age group (2.39%) believe that the Earth is flat. Among 50- and 60-year-olds, this percentage is less than 5%, and among the 18-29, 40-49 and 70+ groups it is around 3%.

RESIDENTS OF MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES ARE THREE TIMES AS LIKELY AS THOSE LIVING IN LARGE CITIES TO BELIEVE THAT THE EARTH IS FLAT AND THAT THIS FACT IS BEING HIDDEN

The most common theory is that the Earth is actually flat, not spherical, and this fact is hidden by the scientific community, believe the inhabitants of towns between 20,000 and 100,000 residents. There are slightly fewer people who also believe in this theory in cities up to 20,000 inhabitants (4.66%) and in the countryside (4.50%). In very large cities (over 500,000 inhabitants) this percentage is 2.56%. On the other hand, the smallest number of Poles who question the spherical shape of the Earth live in cities of 100,000-500,000 inhabitants - only 1.76%.


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TOGETHER WITH BETTER EDUCATION, FEWER POLES QUESTION THE SPHERICAL SHAPE OF OUR PLANET

In the case of the theory of the shape of the Earth, we see a significant disparity by education among believers that the Earth is flat. Among Poles with higher education, only 1.72% question the spherical shape of our planet, and among people with primary education, this percentage rises to 8.67%. Also in this group of respondents, the majority of people do not have an opinion on this subject (11.53%).

5.2% OF TVP INFO VIEWERS CONSIDER THE EARTH TO BE FLAT

Most often, Poles, whose main source of information is TVP Info, believe that the Earth is not spherical and that the scientific community is hiding it (5.21%). A slightly lower percentage of people who think similar are TVN24 viewers (4.32%), followed by Polsat News (3.57%). People who do not watch news channels are the least likely to undermine the shape of our planet - 3.34%.


Quote
NEARLY 5% OF PIS AND POLSKA 2050 VOTERS ARE OF THE VIEW THAT THE EARTH IS NOT SPHERICAL, AND SCIENTISTS HIDE THIS FACT

Also in the case of the theory regarding the shape of the Earth, the greatest number of people who believe that our planet is flat is among the PiS electorate (4.77%), although slightly fewer Poles who share their opinion belong to the Polska 2050 electorate - 4.60%. On the other hand, among the voters of the PSL and Konfederacja, no one believes that the Earth is flat.

2.5 TIMES MORE OF POLES WITH RIGHT VIEWS THAN CENTRISTS QUESTION THE SPHERICITY OF THE EARTH

The most numerous group of people who believe that the Earth is flat are Poles with right-wing views (5.08%). Among the respondents declaring centrist views, this percentage was 2.5 times lower (2.09%). On the other hand, among people with left-wing views, 3.63% believe that the Earth is not spherical, and scientists hide this fact.

RIGHT-WING VIEWS: 5.08% Believe, 5.37% Neither believe nor disbelieve, 89.55% Do not believe
CENTRIST VIEWS: 2.09% Believe, 2.68% Neither believe nor disbelieve, 95.23% Do not believe
LEFT-WING VIEWS: 4.21% Believe, 3.63% Neither believe nor disbelieve, 92.16% Do not believe

« Last Edit: August 06, 2021, 05:16:48 PM by Pete Svarrior »
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Offline J-Man

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Re: 4% of Poles Believe the Earth is Flat
« Reply #7 on: August 29, 2021, 04:21:35 PM »
The Pols also believe Pres. Nixon (not a thief) talked to men on the moon with NO time delay..lmao  Kinda like the 9/11 phone calls from technology not even created yet.  I believe 96% of the world is Polish :)
What kind of person would devote endless hours posting scientific facts trying to correct the few retards who believe in the FE? I slay shitty little demons.