# Do you live in a bubble? quiz **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 17, 2018, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715 "2018-03-17T04:45:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/1 "2018-03-17T04:45:31Z")
[Here’s a quiz](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-a-quiz-2) from PBS about how insulated you are from mainstream American culture. What’s your score? I got a 52 ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/2 "2018-03-17T05:03:47Z")
I got a 48. The ranges are incredibly wide, for example: > [@](#): > > 11–80: A first-generation upper-middle-class person with middle-class parents. Typical: 33. They also don’t well correlate with reality, even with the huge range. Based on my sample size, of 1, of course. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/3 "2018-03-17T05:04:05Z")
I got 20. I guess owing a pickup and having a few friends that I disagree with politically saved me from being completely out of touch… ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/4 "2018-03-17T05:06:32Z")
Fuck that. Gave up after two questions. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/5 "2018-03-17T05:06:43Z")
65 "You got 65 points. The higher your score, the thinner your bubble. The lower, the more insulated you might be from mainstream American culture. See below for scores Charles Murray would expect you to get based on the following descriptions. 48–99: A lifelong resident of a working-class neighborhood with average television and movie going habits. Typical: 77. 42–100: A first-generation middle-class person with working-class parents and average television and movie going habits. Typical: 66. 11–80: A first-generation upper-middle-class person with middle-class parents. Typical: 33." ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/6 "2018-03-17T05:20:04Z")
18, yikes… Sent from my K007 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/7 "2018-03-17T05:38:11Z")
I would say I’m second-generation middle class, but I’m by no means “upper middle class.” My parents were divorced, and my dad was white-collar-wealthy and my mom was pink-collar-struggling. I’ve been a union member and regularly attended meetings, own a pick-up truck, currently own a business which has me doing manual labor (lawn & garden) so I’m sore as fuck during the spring and summer, I live in a small rural town, but it’s part of the Grand Rapids, MI metropolitan area, and I’m sure as hell not rich. I don’t have any close friends who are Republicans, but probably because, aside from my wife, I don’t like people and don’t really care to have any close friends. I got 41. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/8 "2018-03-17T05:47:18Z")
I did it substituting “Canada” for “American” and got a 42. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/9 "2018-03-17T05:50:19Z")
“The higher your score, the thinner your bubble.” How is that so? The chart clearly shows the highest scores to be well outside of “mainstream American culture.” If there was one thing you’d think Charles Murray could recognize, it would be a bell curve. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/10 "2018-03-17T05:52:20Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > [Here’s a quiz](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-a-quiz-2) from PBS about how insulated you are from mainstream American culture. . . . . From the questions it’s clear that this is the stereotyped “mainstream” which the media mythologized when Trump started to raise in popularity, though in fact many of Trump’s voters would score low on this test. Numerically, the cultural indices in this test don’t really represent the majority–they’re just the majority of _ **a certain segment of white culture** _, (which happens to be more prevalent in those areas that gave Trump the electoral college). On the whole, it’s been shrinking, and that freaks out people like Murray, and leads them to make “tests” like these. They are in denial. Someone who scores very high on this test is in a bubble of their own. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/11 "2018-03-17T05:58:09Z")
1. I fit squarely in the top two categories - I’m a lifelong resident of a working class neighborhood and also a first generation middle class person (my parents had blue collar jobs and I have a low end white collar job) and have very average tv and movie habits. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/12 "2018-03-17T06:04:33Z")
Got a 57. Not sure what to make of it. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/13 "2018-03-17T06:39:54Z")
I got an 8. I like my bubble and would like to stay here. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/14 "2018-03-17T07:02:11Z")
I’m pretty sure I’ve taken this before, pre-Trump, and my score might be a touch higher this time around. I don’t remember for sure, and it’s hard to take it all that seriously. It’s such an incredibly narrow definition of “mainstream American culture” that it seems largely useless. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/15 "2018-03-17T10:27:51Z")
Question 1: > [@](#): > > Have you ever lived for at least a year in an American neighborhood in which the majority of your 50 nearest neighbors did not have college degrees? > > Make your judgment with regard to your neighborhood, not your ZIP code. Answer “no” if you are thinking of a gentrifying neighborhood in which you were one of the gentrifiers. How in the hell am I supposed to know that? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/16 "2018-03-17T10:35:01Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > How in the hell am I supposed to know that? Well, did you go to college? Because if, for four years, you lived in a dorm amidst a great many other dorms, each one housing people who — like you — of course didn’t yet have a college degree, well, then, clearly, that qualifies. I may be doing this wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/17 "2018-03-17T11:46:51Z")
Got a 44, but the questions seem to be all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/18 "2018-03-17T12:40:05Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Fuck that. Gave up after two questions. Sounds like you got the right score. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/19 "2018-03-17T13:02:16Z")
Forty-four. Any higher than that and I would be Fraiser Crane. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715/20 "2018-03-17T13:30:38Z")
1. My answer to a lot of “Have your ever …” questions would be very different if they were more like “In the last 40 years …”. My childhood and my adulthood are two very different things, apparently. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-quiz/810715.md?page=2)