I am very skeptical that ~50% of all men in the US know what thermistor means. The Methods section is not clear about whether people who "indicated" they knew a word actually did know what the word meant.
My skepticism applies equally to several of the words chosen as indices of rare comprehension: "The percentages of people indicating they knew the word ranged from 2% (for stotinka, adyta, kahikatea, gomuti, arseniuret, alsike, . . .)"
I strongly doubt that 1 in 50 randomly selected people could define "kahikatea" or "arseniuret."
My skepticism applies equally to several of the words chosen as indices of rare comprehension: "The percentages of people indicating they knew the word ranged from 2% (for stotinka, adyta, kahikatea, gomuti, arseniuret, alsike, . . .)"
I strongly doubt that 1 in 50 randomly selected people could define "kahikatea" or "arseniuret."