TRAVELPOD’S TRAVELER IQ CHALLENGE ON FACEBOOK REVEALS WHY MEN DON’T ASK FOR DIRECTIONS: THEY’RE BETTER AT GEOGRAPHY THAN WOMEN
See Which Schools, Companies, Government Agencies and Locations Have the Best and Worst Geography Knowledge; Ivies Not So Smart; National Geographic Top of News Media Heap
OTTAWA – July 30 2007 – TravelPod, the first ever travel blogging site, today announced the highest and lowest travel IQs on the web as determined by more than 170,000 people who have tested their knowledge of geography with TravelPod’s Facebook application, Traveler IQ Challenge (http://apps.facebook.com/travelpod-challenge/). Test scores range from 64 to 142 after a few weeks of play, and the results reveal who’s been paying attention in class and in the news. The game’s popularity is growing rapidly, and it’s at the top of the most recently popular list of travel applications on Facebook. All data presented in this announcement are as of 18:00 ET, July 29, 2007.
The Challenge shows players a map, and then in rapid-fire succession pops names of cities around the world onto the screen. Players then position their cursor and click on their best guess for the location of the city. The 12-round game gets successively more difficult with islands in unmarked areas of the oceans challenging the most ardent geogrophiles. Travel IQs are calculated in the same manner as the generally accepted IQ tests.
“Whether they’re bitten by the travel bug, are news junkies or just love maps, it’s clear from the results of the Traveler IQ Challenge that a lot of people are passionate, and very competitive, about geography,” said Luc Lévesque, founder of TravelPod. “Occasionally we’ll hear a news report that today’s average person (or politician) can’t find this or that country on a map. Now there’s a place to put that assertion to the test.”
"I have a lot of great memories of playing geography games with other avid travelers as we’d wait for buses in far off destinations or pass the time on long train rides through remote regions,” Lévesque recounted. “The games were wildly addictive and with the new Facebook platform, we thought a Traveler IQ Challenge would be a perfect application that feeds our members’ interests."
They don’t need directions
Tabulating scores from Facebook users literally around the globe shows that men outscore women on the geography test with average scores of 105.41 compared to 97.99 respectively.
School daze
Reviewing the list of top players who are members of college/university groups on Facebook shows that the French colleges seem to spend more time teaching geography than do colleges in other countries (scores are shown for schools with a minimum of ten Facebook players taking the IQ Challenge).
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Paris, France |
117.64 |
|
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Paris, France |
115.69 |
|
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Paris, France |
115.47 |
|
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Fontainebleau, France |
115.20 |
|
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Elsah, IL |
115.00 |
|
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Moncton, Canada |
114.38 |
|
|
HEI-Graduate Institue of International Studies |
Geneva, Switzerland |
113.79 |
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St. Paul, MN |
113.56 |
|
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Princeton, NJ |
113.28 |
|
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UChicago |
Chicago, Il |
113.05 |
Compared to the Ivies:
Trying to decide if the Ivy League is worth the extra bucks? Are these the schools that are turning out the diplomats of the future?
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Brown |
111.89 |
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Columbia |
109.79 |
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Cornell |
108.80 |
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Dartmouth |
109.07 |
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Harvard |
112.14 |
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Princeton |
113.28 |
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UPenn |
110.79 |
|
Yale |
112.21 |
And the top high schools
|
Ronald Regan High School |
San Antonio, TX, US |
116.68 |
|
Plano East Senior High School |
Plano, TX, US |
109.14 |
|
Tulsa, OK, US |
108.40 |
|
|
Eton College High School |
Berkshire, England, UK |
106.65 |
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South Eugene High School |
Eugene, OR, US |
106.61 |
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Manhattan Beach, CA, US |
106.50 |
|
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Sevenoaks, England, UK |
106.38 |
|
|
Andover, MA, US |
106.29 |
|
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Dallas, TX, US |
105.42 |
|
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Clifton College High School |
Bristol, England, UK |
105.22 |
It’s news to us
Facebookers who are members of work-affiliated groups or networks in the news and publishing business are all over the map in terms of geography knowledge, with National Geographic, not surprisingly, leading the pack:
|
National Geographic |
116.40 |
|
CNN |
115.67 |
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The Washington Post |
114.00 |
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MTV Networks |
110.98 |
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Gannett |
110.50 |
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Time Magazine |
110.00 |
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Conde Nast |
109.06 |
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Dow Jones and Company |
108.80 |
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The Economist |
108.58 |
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Newsweek |
107.33 |
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The AP |
107.10 |
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CBC |
105.48 |
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Oxford University Press |
105.14 |
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The Los Angeles Times |
104.80 |
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Reuters |
104.60 |
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BBC |
103.10 |
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The New York Times |
101.75 |
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McGraw Hill |
94.00 |
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Fox News |
93.50 |
Welcome to the candidates’ debate
Many areas of government and associated bureaucracies are represented among Facebook users who took the challenge. Among presidential hopefuls, the Edwards campaign came out less than one point ahead of Hillary’s team. Does that provide a clue into foreign policy skills? We’ll keep tabs as the campaign continues.
|
International Monetary Fund |
126.00 |
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U.S. Department of Justice |
125.61 |
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U.S. Department of Homeland Security |
117.80 |
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National Democratic Institute |
116.75 |
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission |
115.83 |
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Smithsonian Institution |
115.60 |
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U.S. Department of State |
115.34 |
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UK Parliament |
112.79 |
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Government of Saskatchewan |
111.60 |
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John Edwards for President |
109.50 |
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Hillary for President |
109.20 |
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U.S. Congress |
107.97 |
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Parliament of Canada |
107.40 |
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
106.96 |
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
106.70 |
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U.S. Department of Commerce |
106.47 |
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New York City Department of Education |
105.93 |
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Obama for America |
104.83 |
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Department of Transportation, Kansas |
104.00 |
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National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration |
102.42 |
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U.S. Postal Service |
102.00 |
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U.S. Department of Labor |
101.71 |
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services |
100.56 |
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Richardson for President |
92.00 |
Where am I?
The Traveler IQ Challenge scores can be found by clicking on the “stats” tab (http://apps.facebook.com/travelpod-challenge/stats) on the application inside Facebook, and are updated constantly as more players take the challenge and raise or lower the relative scores for their schools, companies, locations and gender.
"It's madness -- everyone wants to challenge me!," said Espen Moe, a faculty member at Norwegian University of Science and Technology who currently holds the number one spot on the Challenge with an IQ of 142. "It's great fun, hugely addictive and you can actually learn something while you play. I even got a Facebook message yesterday from a Hungarian model congratulating me on becoming number one! "
About TravelPod
TravelPod.com was released in 1997 as the Web's first site to enable its members to create online travel blogs (travelogues), which revolutionized the way people travel and share their adventures with the world. Travelers can post travel blogs from previous trips or use TravelPod to host ongoing travel blogs that they can update while they travel. TravelPod.com (http://www.travelpod.com/), based in Ottawa, Canada, was acquired by TripAdvisor in December 2006.
CONTACT:
Brian Payea
(781) 444-1113 x388
Brooke Ferencsik
(781) 444-1113 x275