On March 28-31, 2014, a national sample of 2,066 Americans were asked what action they wanted the U.S. to take in Ukraine, but with a twist: in addition to measuring standard demographic characteristics and general foreign policy attitudes, the survey respondents were also asked to locate Ukraine on a map as part of a larger, ongoing project to study foreign policy knowledge, the Washington Post reports. All the respondents stated they were keeping track of developments in Ukraine.
Survey respondents identified Ukraine by clicking on a high-resolution world map. About one in six (16 percent) Americans correctly located Ukraine, clicking somewhere within its borders. Most thought that Ukraine was located somewhere in Europe or Asia, but the median respondent was about 1,800 miles off — roughly the distance from Chicago to Los Angeles — locating Ukraine somewhere in an area bordered by Portugal on the west, Sudan on the south, Kazakhstan on the east, and Finland on the north.
It is interesting that the farther their guesses were from Ukraine’s actual location, the more they wanted the U.S. to intervene with military force.
www.belsat.eu/en, following washingtonpost.com
