Knowledge is Power

In the most recent American Pulse™ survey, we asked respondents to answer questions about both citizenship and pop culture to see which they were more informed about.

Contrary to what some of us thought would happen, there were no shocking results that put pop culture well above citizenship on the radar of these respondents. Surprising to me was that only 20.3% of Adults 18+ knew that “GTL” stood for “Gym, Tan, Laundry” which, of course, has been made famous by the always entertaining MTV hit Jersey Shore.

The citizenship question that stumped people the most was, “Who is the current Speaker of the House of Representatives?” with only 53.0% knowing that it was John Boehner. I found the overall results to be encouraging.

Registered Voters indexed higher for all correct citizenship answers compared to Adults 18+ as a whole. While the nature of my job requires me to be informed about all aspects of consumers and society as a whole, it’s good to know that others are staying informed about the role of their government and the people who run it. When we head to the polls and exercise rights that many in the world do not have, being as informed and up-to-date on what you are voting on is crucial, regardless of your political affiliation or lack thereof.

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