How well do people know the basic facts on immigration?
A new survey by Ipsos MORI has checked public understanding of the numbers behind some key news stories in 14 countries. Let’s just look at two issues in two countries.
When asked: out of 100 people, how many do you think are immigrants in this country?
- In the UK, the average guess was 24%, but the reality is only 13%
- In the USA, the average guess was 32%, but the reality is again 13%
When asked: out of 100 people, how many do you think are Muslim in this country?
- In the UK, the average guess was 21%, but the reality is a mere 5%
- In the USA, the average guess was 15%, but the reality is a minuscule 1%
You can find more data on more issues in more countries in this piece.
Bobby Duffy, managing director of the Ipsos MORI social research institute, said:
“The real peril of these misperceptions is how politicians and policymakers react. Do they try to challenge people and correct their view of reality or do they take them as a signal of concern, the result of a more emotional reaction and design policy around them?
Clearly the ideal is to do a bit of both – politicians shouldn’t misread these misperceptions as people simply needing to be re-educated and then their views will change – but they also need to avoid policy responses that just reinforce unfounded fears.”