Study: 38 Percent Of People Not Actually Entitled To Their OpinionCHICAGO—In a surprising refutation of the conventional wisdom on
opinion entitlement, a study conducted by the University of Chicago's
School for Behavioral Science concluded that more than one-third of the
U.S. population is neither entitled nor qualified to have opinions.
"On topics from evolution to the environment to gay marriage to
immigration reform, we found that many of the opinions expressed were
so off-base and ill-informed that they actually hurt society by being
voiced," said chief researcher Professor Mark Fultz, who based the
findings on hundreds of telephone, office, and dinner-party
conversations compiled over a three-year
period. "While people have long asserted that it takes all kinds, our
research shows that American society currently has a drastic oversupply
of the kinds who don't have any good or worthwhile thoughts whatsoever.
We could actually do just fine without them."
In 2002, Fultz's team shook the academic world by conclusively
proving the existence of both bad ideas during brainstorming and dumb
questions during question-and-answer sessions.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/61948 
Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:26 pm
