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

[sandstorm]

I couldn’t recognize a sports star if you paid me if they weren’t Venus or Serena.

[hazejournal]

Lol yeah I’m not great with sports stars either

[iznanassi]

lol yeah the football player came up and i was like ".........(: timtom tebowbrady"

[rainbowstevie]

timtom tebowbrady
You're killing me XD

This is how I will be referring to all unknown white sportsmen from now on.

[idontwannago55]

Omg they picked a terrible picture of Beyoncé

[problematic]

They picked terrible pics for a lot of women tbh

[frenchmoodle]

With the Internet, it doesn't seem like we have big name stars anymore. Growing up, everyone seemed to know the A-list stars like Julia Roberts, Will Smith, Robin Williams, etc.

[piratesswoop]

based on this survey, i think the only current A-list star right now is the rock lmao. the only ones more known than him are the two most recent presidents and somehow even boomers mostly know who he is

[frenchmoodle]

yeah, most of my middle schoolers only talk about Tik Tok and don't understand any of my pop culture references.

[schmankerl]

I don't understand (the point of) Tik Tok at all, tbh. Maybe I'm just too old for that.

[trendsnational]

Write in answers? NYT would. 😤 Im a multiple choice fan tyvm. Anyway im currently still taking the quiz cuz I blank out ppls names like the white politicians.

[jeff_koons]

They take misspelled names though

[vespertinev]

I wrote Peter Bootleg cause I can't remember his last name and it said I was wrong!

[sandstorm]

Peter Bootleg 😂

[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.