Posted By Gbaf News
Posted on December 21, 2016
- More than half of Brits (54%) don’t know that Father Christmas was a real person – St. Nicholas of Asia Minor (now Turkey)
- Only 27% of Brits can correctly spell Brussels sprouts
- 51% think that the real Father Christmas was originally from Lapland
Despite rating themselves as an average of 8/10 in terms of intelligence, new research has revealed that we’re a nation lacking in general knowledge, especially when it comes to Christmas.
The study, carried out by GalaBingo.com, revealed that we’re a nation of quiz fanatics – 87% of us having participated in a pub quiz in the last year. With 2017 on the horizon, it’s now clear as to which areas Brits needs to be revising on before hitting the quizzes in the new year.
When asked whether they thought Father Christmas was real, 54% of Brits concluded that he was a made up character, with those in Central England the most likely to deny his existence (67%). The reality is that St. Nicholas, the spark of the ‘Santa’ persona, was very real.
When questioned on Father Christmas’s origin, the majority (51%) claimed that Lapland was the correct answer, yet it was actually Myra, Asia Minor (Turkey) where St. Nicholas came from. The over 65s age group performed the best on this question, with 21% recalling the history of the tale.
Festive veg also stumped many of the survey participants, with Brits finding another reason to dislike a Christmas staple – only 27% of us can spell ‘Brussels sprouts’ correctly, with men outperforming women (60% vs. 40%).
The location of the North Pole was another area that respondents struggled with, with 82% giving incorrect answers of Russia, England, or The Antarctic to name a few.
Geography is definitely not top of the list of strong subjects amongst us Brits. When asked ‘what is the capital of Australia?’, a staggering 57% of 18-24 year olds got the answer wrong. A quarter (25%) of all respondents did not know how hurricanes form and almost a third (31%) did not realise that the Earth orbits the sun!
Even more worrying were the general knowledge questions – one in five (21%) 18 to 24 year olds had no idea Neil Armstrong was the first man to land on the moon, with 10% thinking it was Lance Armstrong or Louis Armstrong!
And it seems maths isn’t our strongest subject either, as only a quarter (25%) of all age groups could answer the equation below, which was taken from the Key Stage 3 curriculum usually taught to schoolchildren aged 11-14:
Question:
| Look at the sequence below: 4 9 16 25 36 Which expression could be used to find the nth term in this sequence? |
| n²+3 |
| 2n+2 |
| n²-3 |
| n² – Correct |
Across the UK, entertainment was revealed as our favourite category (33%) followed by history (16%). Art and literature was deemed our least favourite (25%). Belfast and Newcastle are our most competitive cities when taking part in quizzes, with Norwich the least competitive.
Karina Adrian, PR & Brand Partnership Manager at GalaBingo.com, commented on the findings: “With a new year just around the corner, we thought it would be really interesting to find out how we perform when we are faced with general knowledge questions. Overall, it looks like we’ve got a bit of homework to do!”
”To make sure you stand the best chance of claiming victory in the family Christmas games and are properly prepared for those 2017 pub quizzes, we’ve created a hub of must-know facts about a range of categories – the perfect place to revise for a year of quiz success https://www.galabingo.com/happy-hub#!pubquiz“
