Apathy or Arrogance? Why High Schoolers are Uninformed About Current Events

This study analyzes the associations between high school student confidence levels on international current events, their motivations to learn more, optimism for the future, and their general understanding of international current events. Using a survey, I first asked students how confident they felt about their understanding of current events, their level of desire to learn more, why they felt that way, and their level of optimism for the future. The second section had the participants list 3-10 current events that they felt were the most important. The third section tested their general awareness of current global events by having them decide if presented scenarios were real or fake. The results showed that students with higher perceived understanding were less accurate when determining which scenarios were real. However, those who ranked themselves higher on understanding also had more accuracy in listing current events as well as more eagerness to learn. Additionally, students with higher accuracy on the scenario section reported lower optimism for the future while optimism for the future was higher among those who accurately listed more current events. Future research should attempt to learn more about news sources for these disparate groups.