Americans don't recognise a lot of (their own) politicians & celebrities

[therearewords]

How readers did on Upshot's facial recognition quiz, and what we can learn from their mistakes. https://t.co/MdyCjT1keR
- The Upshot (@UpshotNYT) January 3, 2020

- Are you good at putting a name to a face? Depending on your age and media-intake, you might not be;

- NYT offered a quiz in which you had to put a name to 52 faces

Comments

[spoil]

You answered 48 of 52 questions correctly, better than 98% of Times readers.

Some of these I'm baffled at how anyone could not know who it is lol Do you have eyes or read/watch the news ever?

[pi_lady]

What mostly surprised me were the US avg. vs. NYT avg. for some major US politicians.

"Nearly all Americans say they have heard of Joe Biden. But most under age 40 can’t identify him when shown his picture. "

Bernie Sanders 67% vs. 91%
Nancy Pelosi 64% vs. 92%
Mike Pence 61% vs. 89%
Joe Biden 56% vs. 92%
Elizabeth Warren 45% vs. 90%
Mitch McConnell 35% vs. 81%

[rubie_dubidoux]

to be fair, these days Joe Biden looks like a wax statue of Joe Biden

[zeldazonked]

I thought I was going to do well and only got 33. :[

I recognized only two sports stars and less politicians than I thought I would, but I guess this is because I read the news instead of watching it. I know who Marianne Williamson and Amy Klobuchar are but have no idea what they look like.

The only one I’m embarrassed about is Michael Bloomberg. I was 100% confident that was a picture of Tony Blair, lmao.

[lone_concertina]

I got about the same score - the only people I didn't recognize were the 3 youtubers. I get not knowing what Zelensky looks like but how do people not know what Joe Biden looks like??

[disasterboss]

i got 40/52. i blanked on all those white men who were running for the dem ticket without any chance of getting it

[digi_sprite]

[prettyannamoon]

Yeah, Trump at 86% recognition for NY Times users. Would love a list of the "incorrect" answers on that one.

[loveumbrella]

i mostly listen to the news so I admit I had no idea what Klobuchar or Gabbard or Zelensky looked like, granted i wrote "probably russian" under Zelensky so I'm not that far off. Also ofc I recognised someone like Mike Pence but it did take me a hot minute to remember their name.

Also I'm not american so my 40/52 wasn't that bad.