Most recent high school graduates are not able even to construct a simple
table or interpret a graph. Accordingly, I teach audiences how the table must
balance—how, if grade school-educated adults, for instance, were more
dovish than others, hence supported withdrawal by more than 73 percent, some
other group must be less dovish than 73 percent for the entire population to
balance out at 73 percent doves. If you wish to be an active reader, you might
fill out the table yourself before reading further.
By an overwhelming margin—almost 10 to 1—audiences believe that
college-educated persons were more dovish. Table 2 shows a typical
response.
TABLE 2I then ask audiences to assume that their tables are correct—that the results of
the survey correspond to what they guessed—and to state at least two
reasonable hypotheses to explain these results. Their most common responses:
Educated people are more informed and critical, hence more
able to sift through misinformation and conclude that the
Vietnam War was not in our best interests, politically or
morally.
Educated people are more tolerant. There were elements of
racism and ethnocentrism in our conduct of the war; educated
people are less likely to accept such prejudice.