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The majority of Americans believe that «Arabic numerals» shouldn’t be taught at school, a survey found out. Conducted to shed light on the bias and prejudice of poll respondents, the survey revealed that fifty-six percent of people who responded say they don’t want these numerals to be included in the curriculum for US students, the Independent reports.
Without revealing to their respondents what «Arabic numerals» are, Civic Science, the American research company behind the survey, said it asked 3,624 people in the US : «Should schools in America teach Arabic numerals as part of their curriculum ?».
According to the same source, 2,020 replied saying «no», while 29 percent of the respondents said «the numerals should be taught in US schools». On the other hand, 15 percent had no opinion.
For the record, Arabic numerals are currently used in US schools and around the world, which made of the results of this poll quite disappointing. They were «the saddest and funniest testament to American bigotry we’ve ever seen in our data», chief executive of Civic Science John Dick said.
According to Dick, this «means that the question is about knowledge or ignorance but [also] something else – prejudice».
The survey was conducted in the first place to «tease out prejudice among those who didn’t understand the question», Dick concluded.
