From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,76f19a5f656fa576 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Robert I. Eachus" Subject: Re: Embedded Systems Survey Date: 2000/08/04 Message-ID: <398A21B9.DB93DF7B@earthlink.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 654260247 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <2000Apr27.075813.1@eisner> X-Accept-Language: en,pdf Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net 965353863 63.24.57.193 (Thu, 03 Aug 2000 18:51:03 PDT) Organization: The MITRE Corporation MIME-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 18:51:03 PDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-08-04T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: tmoran@bix.com wrote: > There's a nice trick for getting statistics on something people won't > tell you. Ask, for instance: "Think of a number between 1 and 10. If > your number is less than 5, or you prefer Ada, say Yes. If it's greater > than 5 and you don't like Ada, say No." Calibrate by asking another > group just the number part and not the Ada part, then the difference in > percentages tells you the percentage of people preferring Ada, without > telling about any particular person. This proposed method has several serious flaws. First, as stated, anyone who answers "No" doesn't like Ada. Second, having people think of a number introduces a bias which you attempt to correct for by the second survey. But notice that clever readers of the survey will answer "Yes" if they like Ada without guessing a number. So there will be a bias in the answers if those who don't like Ada tend to guess different numbers than those who do. If you really need to assure people that the survey is anonymous, you have to use a method which people will trust. The easiest way I know of to do this is a (snail) mail survey. Best I know of is to bind a postcard (not a blow-in) into a magazine that you are using to define the population of interest. If the card is designed to be folded and stapled, most people trust the survey to be anonymous. Of course, that still doesn't mean that their answers will be honest. On "Do you want to be a millionaire?" I am constantly amused by the numbers in response to the "Ask the audience" lifelines. Even if two answers have already been eliminated, there will be votes for those answers.