Demographics of respondents?

Question

I am constantly amazed by the lack of understanding of some basic principles that questions to this site demonstrate. I am wondering if this can be attributed to age (are these posters still in high/middle school) poor education (not being taught some of the basics), environment (living with others that do not understand the concepts) or just plain ignorance.

As a first step toward looking at this question I am asking people that have asked (or responded) to anthropology questions to post an age estimate. Specifics are not needed, but generally are people in college, high school, retired, etc.

Thanks

Answer 1

I think there is a combination of the factors you listed at play. It does seem like users are disproportionately young, relative to the general population. I usually operate under the default assumption that people are between 16 and 20, unless they give some indication otherwise.

Answer 2

I am 23 and just graduated college.  I have found in my life that people who are not taught to question things will use any source for citations within conversations.  People will draw from what other people have told them and place the same amount of value as the input from a reliable, trustworthy source.  I believe that the key to answering your questions lays in the behavioristics of the population you are wanting to poll as opposed to the demographics.  For example, was the poster taught as a child to question authority or taught to take information for granted?

Answer 3

Many of the uninformed questions likely come from first year college students needing fast answers to questions for homework or short papers.  They are lazy and don't want to do the research or have put it off to the last minute.  Others have a desire to know but are completely uninformed.  Others are looking to spark argument such as the 'if evolution is true, why do monkeys still exist?' crowd.  I think some even have no idea what anthropology is such as those who ask about Caesar knowing the way to cheat death and similar tripe.

Mid 20s, Bachelor's Anthropology, Bachelor's in Religion, Certificate in Native American Studies, some grad school in New Zealand, living in Taiwan, teaching English and studying culture.

Answer 4

I would say some people who ask questions are in high school and looking for some home work help. They have not researched their homework yet and have sought the easy way out by asking on Yahoo.

I go to university and ask questions on Yahoo in the sociology section as I have researched my question beforehand for my homework, but am looking for different points of view that I havent encountered in my research.

Also some people who ask questions on this site are just plain bored and they know they can get instant answers by using Yahoo answers. (They may be in high school or work full time and have just gotten off work for the day).  Hence, they dont really care whether their question has been fully thought through, sound intelligent or even coherent.

Answer 5

Age 105, water skiing and sky diving instructor.