Survey finds Indians to be extremely ignorant
While India, the world's largest democracy, continues to rise in stature and power in the global setting, its success eclipses a problem. According to a survey undertaken by Ipsos MORI, India ranked first among 40 other countries in the "Index of Ignorance". This is not the first time India has performed dismally. Last year, India was the second most ignorant country in the survey.
What is Ipsos MORI?
Ipsos MORI is the second largest market research organization of the United Kingdom. Apart from market research, Ipsos MORI's Social Research Institute works extensively, looking at public attitudes regarding key issues such as identity, social cohesion, physical capital and so on.
The Ipsos MORI Perils of Perception Survey
The Ipsos MORI Perils of Perception survey was conducted from 22nd September to 6th November 2016. The firm interviewed 27,250 respondents in the aforementioned period. While India's performance isn't particularly encouraging, it is important to note that the survey was conducted online. Considering the poor status of internet penetration in India, the survey thus reflected the ignorance of the middle-class and other connected people.
The questions asked in the Ipsos MORI survey
The Ipsos MORI Perils of Perception survey identified twelve areas and asked questions to their respondents about the same. The areas included perceptions on current Muslim population, future Muslim population, happiness, acceptability of homosexuality, acceptability of pre-marital sex, acceptability of abortion, wealth of the bottom 70%, house ownership, health spending, current population, future population, and a question about predicting the US election outcome.
No dearth of pessimism in the world
"But in this new study we also show that we're often unduly pessimistic about how happy people are and our tolerance on controversial issues such as homosexuality, sex before marriage and abortion," added Bobby Duffy, the MD of Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute, London.
Performance of other countries in the Index of Ignorance
The top 10 most ignorant countries, starting with India, are as follows. China came second, followed by Taiwan, South Africa, US, Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, Turkey, and Indonesia. On the other end of the spectrum stood countries with most awareness. Netherlands was the most informed, followed by Great Britain, South Korea, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Australia, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Columbia.
