You could have a question about the scientific consensus on whether abortion can cause breast cancer (to catch biased pro-lifers). For bias on the other side, perhaps there is some human characteristic the fetus develops earlier than the average uninformed pro-choicer would guess? There seems to be no consensus on fetus pain, but maybe some uncontroversial-yet-surprising fact about nervous system development? I couldn’t find anything too surprising on a quick Wiki read, but maybe there is something.
I would expect that even as a fairly squishy pro-abortion Westerner (incredibly discomforted with the procedure but even more discomforted by the actions necessary to ban it), I’m likely to underestimate the health risks of even contragestives, and significantly underestimate the health risks of abortion procedures. Discussion in these circles also overstates the effectiveness of conventional contraception and often underestimates the number of abortions performed yearly. The last number is probably the easiest to support through evidence, although I’d weakly expect it to ‘fool’ smaller numbers of people than qualitative assessments.
I’m also pretty sure that most pro-choice individuals drastically overestimate its support by women in general—this may not be what you’re looking for, but the intervals (40% real versus 20% expected for women who identify as “pro-life”) are large enough that they should show up pretty clearly.
These are good ideas. You’ve got it quite right—these are exactly the kinds of questions I’m looking for. Possibly the health risks questions are the best ones—I’ll see what evidence I can find on those issues. Thanks!
It wouldn’t surprise me if people generally overestimate the safety and effectiveness of drugs and medical procedures—would you want to compare the accuracy of people’s evaluation of contraceptives and abortions to their evaluation of medicine in general?
It also wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a minority who drasitically underestimate the safety and effectiveness of medicine.
You could have a question about the scientific consensus on whether abortion can cause breast cancer (to catch biased pro-lifers). For bias on the other side, perhaps there is some human characteristic the fetus develops earlier than the average uninformed pro-choicer would guess? There seems to be no consensus on fetus pain, but maybe some uncontroversial-yet-surprising fact about nervous system development? I couldn’t find anything too surprising on a quick Wiki read, but maybe there is something.
I would expect that even as a fairly squishy pro-abortion Westerner (incredibly discomforted with the procedure but even more discomforted by the actions necessary to ban it), I’m likely to underestimate the health risks of even contragestives, and significantly underestimate the health risks of abortion procedures. Discussion in these circles also overstates the effectiveness of conventional contraception and often underestimates the number of abortions performed yearly. The last number is probably the easiest to support through evidence, although I’d weakly expect it to ‘fool’ smaller numbers of people than qualitative assessments.
I’m also pretty sure that most pro-choice individuals drastically overestimate its support by women in general—this may not be what you’re looking for, but the intervals (40% real versus 20% expected for women who identify as “pro-life”) are large enough that they should show up pretty clearly.
These are good ideas. You’ve got it quite right—these are exactly the kinds of questions I’m looking for. Possibly the health risks questions are the best ones—I’ll see what evidence I can find on those issues. Thanks!
It wouldn’t surprise me if people generally overestimate the safety and effectiveness of drugs and medical procedures—would you want to compare the accuracy of people’s evaluation of contraceptives and abortions to their evaluation of medicine in general?
It also wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a minority who drasitically underestimate the safety and effectiveness of medicine.