A small insight
Surveys really are the best way to get free advertising space.
Speight’s did some sort of survey of Kiwi men, and it’s turning up all over the place. They asked 504 men some incompletely described set of questions with no hint as to how they were selected.
Highlights of the results:
- A staggering 97% claim they would pay the correct amount of money when buying from an honesty box. We can conclude that men who are financially dishonest also lie on surveys.
- Just over 80 per cent said they would help a stranded motorist on the road, but in Otago only 76 per cent said they would stop to lend a hand. If there are 504 respondents across the country, you might wonder if there are enough in any one region to distinguish 76% from 80%. No way.
The press release quotes Anna Gestro from Speight’s as saying “The Speight’s survey is a small insight into the Kiwi male psyche.”
How small? Very, very small.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »