<p>I say economics. Heck, most <em>economists</em> don't even understand economics. What say you?</p>
<p>Rather a vague question. You mean the most misunderstood field even by those who study it, or do you mean the most misunderstood by those outside the field?</p>
<p>For the first, I think many many fields are hard to understand because there is so much at play, especially at higher levels of study (math for instance, where at lower levels it’s all very cut-and-dried). It’s really impossible to narrow it down to the most misunderstood.</p>
<p>For the second… I have no idea. I’ve been thinking about it and I can’t decide. Psych is seen by so many as “magic” and “talking about feelings” that I would say it’s right up there among the most misunderstood by others though.</p>
<p>IMO- it’s anthropology. You have no idea how many people think that all anthropologists are like Indian Jones. </p>
<p>Really, it could be anything. Basically every major can be misunderstood.</p>
<p>I second economics…</p>
<p>Most misunderstood - math. People think it’s just adding and subtracting numbers.</p>
<p>the question is kind of ambiguous. But I think economics is pretty misunderstood by nonmajors. People take an intro-level course, conclude that it is really easy, and dismiss the subject. In reality I think econ is one of the hardest majors, up there with the hard sciences, at least at my school.</p>
<p>chemistry.
“oh it’s just converting one thing to another and using formulas.” yeah, okay.</p>
<p>Computer Science</p>
<p>Women’s studies.</p>
<p>Economics and Geography.</p>
<p>How about those who confuse astronomy and astrology?</p>
<p>People keep telling me econ is easy. I keep wanting to punch them in the face.</p>
<p>So, econ. And Classics.</p>
<p>I second Anthropology.</p>
<p>Correction to post 3: It should be “Indiana Jones” not Indian Jones lol.</p>
<p>Computer science. Most people think it’s just working with applications.</p>
<p>Geography, history.</p>
<p>Economics is a pseudoscience and a plague that is ruining civilization.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>See? You backed up my point, economics is <em>very</em> misunderstood.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t argue that religion is THE most understood major, but I definitely get a lot of questions about how religious I am and assumptions that I want to become a priest.</p>
<p>I third economics. People automatically assume it is too “businessy” and all about MONEY when in fact it has very little to do with both. It is essentially a social science that studies human behaviour. People also think it is an easy major and have no idea that it is in fact very much a quant major.</p>
<p>history – it’s a lot more than just reading and writing.</p>