Talking-up Scotland

This new large-scale research study based on a sample of more than 40 000 young people across the English-speaking world, has found Scots to be the least bull-shitterish, much less than the English (we knew that) and much, much, less than the Canadians (we didn’t?). The researchers found:

‘substantial differences in young people’s tendencies to bullshit.’

This table and explanation make our proud, yet at the same time modest, position clear:

‘Three broad clusters of countries seem to have emerged. At the top of the rankings are the two North American countries of the United States and Canada. With average scale scores of 0.25 and 0.3, these two countries have significantly higher bullshit scores than any other country. The next three countries (Australia, New Zealand and England) are in the middle of the rankings. Teenagers in these countries exaggerate less about their prowess, on average, than young people in Canada and the United States – by a magnitude equivalent to an effect size of around 0.1. However, they are also significantly bigger bullshitters than young people from Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland who form the final group. The average bullshit scale score in these countries ranges between approximately -0.26 (Ireland and Northern Ireland) and -0.43 (Scotland) which is significantly lower than every other country. Moreover, the difference between these countries and North American is sizeable; equivalent to an effect size greater than 0.5. Consequently, despite speaking the same language, and with a closely shared culture and history, we find important variation across Anglophone countries in teenagers’ propensity to bullshit.’ (P13)

http://ftp.iza.org/dp12282.pdf

Other differences? See:

Another difference as UK small and medium-sized business people prefer Boris while Scots prefer…

Abuse of women and the disabled far higher in England than in Scotland

Less homicide, less knife crime, less domestic violence, safer cities and now much lower alcohol problems: should Scotland’s old stereotypes be sent south?

Racial hate crimes increase by 33% in England & Wales while falling by 10% in Scotland: Who says we’re not different?

Scottish Muslim students far less likely to report abuse or crime?

Terror de-radicalisation referral rate in Scotland less than one third per capita of that in England

Only in Scotland! ‘A review of small country’s approaches to public policy reform in response to economic, demographic and other pressures found that only in Scotland could this ‘golden thread’ be so clearly discerned’

Scientific evidence that Scots tend to be different from the other groups in rUK?

Who said Scots were not more left-wing than those in the rest of the UK?

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

80 000 lowest paid workers in NHS England still on poverty wages as NHS Scotland follows Scottish Government policy to pay a living wage to all public-sector employees

Scottish care workers to receive Living Wage for ‘sleepover’ hours while English care workers receive only the National Minimum Wage.