On earth it's entirely true that heavy things fall and light things float (like dust, feathers, etc). So you can't blame someone for applying this experience to the moon if they've never thought it through. Also, I wonder if the "heavy boots" part comes from the fact that the Apollo astronauts on video look like they're underwater. In water, you'd need heavy boots to stop yourself from floating. I wouldn't call these misconceptions. More like non-conceptions: there was no preexisting idea before the question was asked that could have been incorrect.
There's also the issue of quality of effort. If you apply effort to reason something through, you can weed out obvious misconceptions on your own and give a better answer. Part of the reason why the people that gave ridiculous answers got lower test scores could be that they are not in the habit of applying much effort when asked science-type questions, so they blurt out the first thing that comes to mind and move on. I suspect that on a more-favored subject most of those people would apply effort and give higher-quality answers. Otherwise, they'd be crippled in all aspects of life. This explains why my mom can't use a computer and I can't use her ultra-sophisticated microwave. She doesn't want to expend effort on the computer and I don't want to expend effort in preparing food.
I think this is an accurate guess as to what is going on.
I wonder if there's a reliable way to get people to start using critical analysis on a subject. Such as when you're training someone how to send an email, this would be helpful information!
They need some internal motivation and the belief that their effort will pay off, i.e. the subject is within their reach to comprehend, and the effort invested (and risk) will yield an acceptable return. If they don't like a subject, there's going to be a debt of remedial knowledge that's missing. Like fully understanding that gravity affects dust and feathers, even though they float in the air.
There's also the issue of quality of effort. If you apply effort to reason something through, you can weed out obvious misconceptions on your own and give a better answer. Part of the reason why the people that gave ridiculous answers got lower test scores could be that they are not in the habit of applying much effort when asked science-type questions, so they blurt out the first thing that comes to mind and move on. I suspect that on a more-favored subject most of those people would apply effort and give higher-quality answers. Otherwise, they'd be crippled in all aspects of life. This explains why my mom can't use a computer and I can't use her ultra-sophisticated microwave. She doesn't want to expend effort on the computer and I don't want to expend effort in preparing food.