Uninformed

Why People Know So Little About Politics and What We Can Do About It

By: Arthur Lupia

Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau

Research polls, media interviews, and everyday conversations reveal an unsettling truth: citizens, while well-meaning and even passionate about current affairs, appear to know very little about politics. Hundreds of surveys document vast numbers of citizens answering even basic questions about government incorrectly. Given this unfortunate state of affairs, it is not surprising that more knowledgeable people often deride the public for its ignorance. Some experts even think that less informed citizens should stay out of politics altogether. As Arthur Lupia shows in Uninformed, this is not constructive. At root, critics of public ignorance fundamentally misunderstand the problem. Many experts believe that simply providing people with more facts will make them more competent voters. However, these experts fail to understand how most people learn, and hence don't really know what types of information are even relevant to voters. Feeding them information they don't find relevant does not address the problem. In other words, before educating the public, we need to educate the educators. Lupia offers not just a critique, though; he also has solutions. Drawing from a variety of areas of research on topics like attention span and political psychology, he shows how we can actually increase issue competence among voters in areas ranging from gun regulation to climate change. To attack the problem, he develops an arsenal of techniques to effectively convey to people information they actually care about. Citizens sometimes lack the knowledge that they need to make competent political choices, and it is undeniable that greater knowledge can improve decision making. But we need to understand that voters either don't care about or pay attention to much of the information that experts think is important. Uninformed provides the keys to improving political knowledge and civic competence: understanding what information is important to others and knowing how to best convey it to them.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2015 Arthur Lupia (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Wrong PDF

Please fix it. Other than that it was a very interesting book. If pdf is fixed, I might read it again.

Great for Political Scientists and Educators.

Great for Political Scientists and Educators. A highly recommended read or listen. A definite bookshelf item.

DON'T BUY THE AUDIO BOOK

The audiobook refers to an "attached pdf" several times each chapter. At the beginning of the audiobook, they say "Visual aids found in the print edition of this book are available to you as a downloadable PDF. To access this file, please click the link on the product page where you purchased this title." AUDIBLE PROVIDES NO SUCH PDF. As a result, there is now way to view the charts, tables, graphs, and political cartoons that are referenced in the book. Do NOT buy the audiobook until they fix this!!!!

No PDF

PDF consisted of a one page venn diagram that doesnt seem to pertain in any way to the book.

Not what it seems

Makes itself look like a book about the problem of willful ignorance in politics. Buyer beware. That’s not what it is at all. Instead, the listeners time is wasted by a bunch of timid, milquetoast platitudes about what *educators* can do to better inform willing, good-faith listeners—placing none of the responsibility where it belongs: on cherry-picking, fallacy-spouting, narrow-minded, myopic partisans who don’t want the truth unless it aligns with their preexisting biases and preferred narratives.

In other words, this is nothing but a boring rehash of long-established social science pedagogy selling itself as incisive and timely. It is neither.