Today’s Atlantic Trivia: What Did the Polls Miss?
NEWS | 24 February 2026
Updated with new questions at 4:30 p.m. ET on February 23, 2026. If you put any stock in the ability of IQ tests to assess intelligence, we humans have spent the past century steadily getting smarter. (And if you don’t put any stock in them, well, we humans have steadily gotten better at IQ tests.) Because IQ is a standardized measure, humankind’s average score still sits at 100—but this isn’t your granddaddy’s 100. IQ tests are regularly recalibrated, and over the past many decades, when new subjects have taken an old test, they have almost always outscored their predecessors’ average; Grandpa’s generation might have hovered around 100, but the kids are scoring 115 … which then becomes the new 100. This phenomenon is called the Flynn effect, and researchers still aren’t sure what causes it. Perhaps it’s due to more efficient education or better nutrition. The reason could be that modern environments contain more interesting stimuli or that modern gasoline no longer contains lead. I haven’t seen anyone propose that trivia is to thank, but the growing popularity of quizzing tracks with the IQ trend line pretty well too. I think I speak for all of science when I say we shouldn’t rule it out quite yet. Find previous questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily. Monday, February 23, 2026 What candy bar made by the Hershey Company comprises a heap of chewy coconut filling enrobed in dark chocolate? — From Nicholas Florko’s article on the vanishing gap between candy and protein bars Of seven major European polls conducted in the summer of 2016, only one correctly predicted what surprise political outcome? — From David Frum’s eulogy for Gallup’s presidential-approval polling The novel Mother Night, about a man posing as a Nazi, was written by what American author who spent part of World War II imprisoned in a German slaughterhouse? — From Tom Nichols’s essay on the Republican Party’s Nazi problem And by the way, did you know that the most venerable polling operation of the early 20th century—which had correctly predicted the 1916, 1920, 1924, 1928, and 1932 elections—got the 1936 election wrong by 38 points? In one of U.S. history’s great polling flops, The Literary Digest forecast that Alf Landon would beat Franklin D. Roosevelt by 14 points in the popular vote; instead, Roosevelt won it by 24—and took every state but two. The problem? The Digest pulled together its sample from lists of people with registered cars or telephones—things that the people likeliest to vote Democrat didn’t typically have in the middle of the Great Depression. See you tomorrow! Answers: Mounds. Nicholas writes that the coconut-flavored protein bar he begins most days with is a dead ringer for the Hershey product—but certainly far healthier. Right? Well, Nicholas reports that many consumers are living a protein-bar delusion and that even the “good” options aren’t nearly as healthful as whole foods. Read more. Brexit. The failure to forecast Brits’ decision to leave the European Union presaged polling’s accuracy collapse in the 2016 U.S. election, David writes, and the industry hasn’t really recovered from the shocks since. He suggests that reliable polling as a whole might be a bygone American institution. Read more. Kurt Vonnegut. Witnessing the way that Nazi language and aesthetics have overtaken swaths of the GOP, Tom quotes a warning from Vonnegut’s novel: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Read more. How did you do? Come back tomorrow for more questions, and if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a fact—send it my way at [email protected]. Friday, February 20, 2026 According to legend, the 16th-century Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León searched the New World for what mythical location? — From Jordan D. Metzl’s essay on the dubious science of longevity What Black scholar founded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 for the education of newly freed African Americans? — From Adam Harris’s essay on the radical feel to this year’s Black History Month The gym Planet Fitness bans members from wearing what fabric prominently featured in a recent PSA starring an exercising Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? — From Daniel Engber’s analysis of a specific, storied subtype of gym-goer And by the way, did you know that the world’s first sweatpants were introduced in the 1920s by a French designer in search of a way to stretch with ease? Back then, they were made entirely of wool, which, while ostensibly allowable at Planet Fitness, seems rather more uncomfortable than the fabric options you can get today. Answers: The Fountain of Youth. Alas, Ponce de León never found it (unsurprising, considering he never actually looked for it), and Metzl writes that the wellness industry’s current obsession with longevity hacks will probably be similarly fruitless. He advises people not to buy into the hype and instead focus on adding “life to years” rather than “years to life.” Read more. Booker T. Washington. Adam writes that Black history is much more complex than the simple story that critics say Americans no longer need to learn. He gives as an example the legacy of Washington, who for all his greatness was ready to settle for second-class citizenship for his fellow Black Americans and himself. Read more. Denim. Daniel is certain that the explanation for RFK Jr.’s attire in the viral video of him in the sauna, on the pickleball court, and even in the hot tub is that Kennedy is simply a jeans guy. Allow Daniel to explain all the meaning and history that title carries. Read more. Thursday, February 19, 2026 A 1934 government inventory of what area tallied 13,500 Eskimo, 3,500 Danes, 8,000 sheep, and the world’s largest deposit of the strategic mineral cryolite? — From Timothy W. Ryback’s essay on a historical figure’s pursuit of the place Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė recently said that what country of hers made a mistake in allowing Taiwan to open a representative office in its capital, Vilnius? — From Simon Shuster and Vivian Salama’s article on the countries caught between the United States and China What five-letter word do behavioral scientists use to describe a subtle psychological cue—such as placing healthy food at eye level at the grocery store—that gives people a little push to act a particular way? — From Rob Wolfe’s essay on the long shift of systemic responsibilities to the individual And by the way, did you know that barcode scanning was initially greeted with a huge backlash? The first item ever scanned by barcode was a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, in June 1974, but by the end of the ’70s, only about 1 percent of stores had adopted barcodes. Consumers were worried that the tech would be used to rip them off. Advocacy groups mounted campaigns against the barcode, and protesters even picketed stores that used scanners. Others swore that the barcode was the biblical “mark of the beast.” Obviously, it eventually caught on, and people got over their fears—though if you ever get rung up at $6.66, maybe offer to round to the next dollar, just in case. Answers: Greenland. And that 1934 government was actually Nazi Germany. Ryback traces what appears to have been Adolf Hitler’s lifelong obsession with Greenland—a fixation that led Hitler to pursue Greenland’s military and economic resources after his unsuccessful tariffs created a domestic mess in Germany. Read more. Lithuania. Lithuania tacked toward Taiwan (and thus the United States) when Joe Biden was still president, but Simon and Vivian report that the Trump presidency has not been kind to Lithuania and other small countries like it. Rather, they write, the United States’ focus on the United States has forced former partners to seek—not always successfully—their own “strategic balance” with China. Read more. Nudge. It seemed for a time during the Barack Obama years, Wolfe writes, that nudge politics were going to save the world, but research has since revealed how ineffective these pushes are (unless they’re trying to get people to do the wrong thing, in which case they work much better). Read more. Wednesday, February 18, 2026 What name is shared by the city that’s home to the oldest continuously operating university in North America and the one that’s home to Europe’s third-oldest? — From Rose Horowitch’s article about elite universities’ satellite campuses All major categories of competition at this year’s Winter Olympics feature mixed-gender events, save for what sport considered too dangerous for the combining of men and women? — From Christie Aschwanden’s essay on these Olympics’ boon to women’s sports By what colorful name did Jesse Jackson refer to his vision of Americans of all creeds, races, and backgrounds uniting to overcome inequality? — From Adam Serwer’s essay reflecting on Jackson’s legacy after his death this week And by the way, did you know that the University of Bologna is nearly a millennium old? It’s the world’s oldest university that was founded as such (at least one older university started as a madrasa), and its alumni include Copernicus, Dante, and more than one pope. Imagine trying to write a halfway-decent poem for an assignment, and your classmate turns in the Divine Comedy. Then again, at least you’d have had a leg up on Copernicus, who probably got marked off plenty for insisting that the Earth actually orbits the sun. Answers:
Author: Drew Goins.
Source