Amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran, a new survey shows less than three out of 10 registered American voters can identify Iran on an unlabelled map.
Morning Consult and Politico found that only 28 percent of the 1,995 registered voters who responded to the poll could accurately identify Iran on a zoomed-in map of the Middle East.
Twenty-three percent of respondents could point out Iran on a larger, global map, while eight percent of voters confused Iraq with Iran on the smaller, zoomed-in map.
The polling was conducted on January 4 and 5 - just days before the Iranian military fired missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops on Wednesday (NZ time).
According to Morning Consult, the polling experiment "sheds light on voters' geographical unfamiliarity with foreign countries, even those with which the United States has been engaged in sustained conflict".
The survey found men were almost twice as likely to identify Iran on both maps compared to women. Wealthier and more educated respondents were also more likely to be accurate. Political party and age did not prove to be conclusive factors.
The experiment also found that 49 percent of voters heard "a lot" about the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US-orchestrated airstrike last week - sparking Wednesday's missile attacks in retaliation.
The poll found:
- 47 percent of participating voters supported the strike that killed Soleimani
- 40 percent opposed the strike
- 70 percent of Democrat respondents disapproved
- 85 percent of Republican respondents approved
- 61 percent of Republican respondents strongly approved
- 69 percent of participating voters thought the strike made war with Iran more likely
- 50 percent said they thought it made the US less safe.
Of the 28 percent who correctly identified Iran on a map of the Middle East:
- 38 percent were men, 20 percent were women
- 27 percent were Democrats, 31 percent were Independents and 28 percent were Republicans
- 38 percent had a university degree, 24 percent didn't
- 39 percent had an income of US$100,000 and over, 34 percent had an income between US$50,000 and $100,000, while 21 percent had an income of US$50,000 and under
- 18-29-year-olds, 55-64-year-olds and 65 and older accounted for 29 percent each, while 30-44-year-olds and 45-54-year-olds accounted for 27 percent each.
