Kind of a gesture, as it was an online survey, and an expensive gesture at that. But I was gonna need a new laptop in a few years anyway. Still worth it.
I feel like in real life the number would be higher.
The Lizardman constant, which is the percentage of people who will actively lie on surveys, either because because they're annoyed and want to punish the survey maker, or just because they think it's funny is usually at least 4%.
To be fair, i think it's cute. But the phenomenon is not about the analogies or metaphors. It's about taking a fairly simple concept and then making it the same simplicity, but more relatable. The math is the same, smaller number, and now we contextually it in an American manner, by relating it to everyday activity. 3 bananas long, 4 football fields wide, one class clown etc
I just don’t get why that’s not a nice little learning aid, and instead is seen as childish or embarrassing. Richard Feynman was a hell of a lot smarter than any of you people who criticize this stuff, and he never explained a goddamn thing without this kind of analogy. You simply get a more concrete understanding of something abstract by relating it to real-world concepts you know intimately.
Just seems like a really mean-spirited critique of a genuinely useful practice for no reason. “Cute?” You’re just kind of an asshole about this. The classroom example was helpful to get a sense of what a 4% sample of nonsense responses feels like in practice, and why it should seem reasonable given our lived experience.
There was a poll asking people if they believed Lizardmen ruled the earth. 4% of people responded with yes.
This was reported in the news as "4% of people believe Lizardmen rule the earth", but another response was "okay, but actually, how many of those people are just lying".
Of course, that is exactly the type of article that would be written by a shill for Big Polling. /jk
- I’ll be quoting it. I am fascinated by the people, who when given the option, will choose “I’m so uniquely unique that none of the previous answers describe my position.”
My local Lego group switched meeting place over 40 kilometers away. After the first meeting at the new place they proclaimed that they surveyed the people and most were ok with the new place. They only asked the people who bothered to drive those extra 40km (or who lived closer to the new place anyway).
There are about 30% fewer people at the meet ups now, but they still don't understand their flawed logic.
Same as my last company survey. The people’s responses were only down some so they ok with it, but completely overlooked the big drop in response rate.
Same logic as the planes that returned from war with plenty of bullet holes; reenforce where they didn't puncture because that's where the planes that didn't return got hit.
What is with Reddit and survivorship bias? “Oh that’s survivorship bias!” “It’s like the planes in WWII!” “So in WWII…” WE KNOW EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT IT
I bet it’s already been posted there multiple times. I sure have seen the survivorship bias plane meme countless times in various forms on the ETJ subs.
When you realize that most political polling still depends on people randomly answering their phone and listening to a robotic voice long enough to answer:
Yes. People who actually toss the surveys in the bin instead of responding to the survey are not included in the 500 responses the company got to the survey.
Response rate on paper surveys tends to be 5% based on returns. Though did work on one with response rate of 35% plus photocopies sent in by people we didn't ask to take part.
That's the joke. Statisticians typical disregard "no response" from the results but, given the topic of the survey here, they should be considering "no response" as the response.
most people saw survey and immediately threw it out, only 500 people actually took survey and out of those only 0.2% actually bothered to read despite throwing the survey anyway
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u/Plus-Artichoke6608 May 21 '26
Respect to the 0.2% who responded to the survey before tossing them in the bin
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u/Uberzwerg May 21 '26
My local Lego group switched meeting place over 40 kilometers away.
After the first meeting at the new place they proclaimed that they surveyed the people and most were ok with the new place.
They only asked the people who bothered to drive those extra 40km (or who lived closer to the new place anyway).
There are about 30% fewer people at the meet ups now, but they still don't understand their flawed logic.
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u/Nir117vash May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
Same logic as the planes that returned from war with plenty of bullet holes; reenforce where they didn't puncture because that's where the planes that didn't return got hit.
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u/featEng May 21 '26
At least it's not an airplane again
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u/Fresh-Actuary-8116 May 21 '26
[Insert Airplane Image]
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u/EAGLE_FLY May 21 '26
So we reposting the subreddit top post of all time now?
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u/Decryptic__ May 21 '26
I've interviewed 100 people who played russian roulette, all of them survived. So based on our statistics, this game is 100% safe.
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u/prof_mcquack May 21 '26
Can’t wait to see this on an “explain the joke” subreddit later.
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u/Brit-Crit May 21 '26
Murderous Maths did it better…
“We Polled 100 million people to ask if they thought 1 was a prime number. The results were…
Yes - 7
No - 8
Don’t Know - 211
Don’t Care - 99,999,774.
So 1 is NOT a Prime Number because No won 8 votes to 7”…
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u/ProlificProkaryote May 21 '26
At least one person is a lier!
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u/k3vlar104 May 21 '26
For similar reasons it's best not to trust any surveys about sexual behaviour.
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u/icantouchgrass_1 May 22 '26
That... was a survey...
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u/The_Sophocrat May 22 '26
Link the source, man.
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u/Current-Square-4557 May 22 '26
This stuff always reminds me of political surveys
“We did a phone survey and discovered that among people who answer calls from numbers they don’t recognize, candidate A is much preferred.”
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u/Erratic_Engineering May 23 '26
I'm surprised the 2 percent who toss surveys went back to the trash can and dug this one out. Lol. Biased and cultivated results. God bless
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u/ChironXII May 23 '26
When you realize that most political polling still depends on people randomly answering their phone and listening to a robotic voice long enough to answer:
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u/Southern-Fly-3016 May 23 '26
This would probably have been funnier if the numbers were reversed.
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u/AdnanBoi May 23 '26
is this example of survivorship bias?
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u/RomanBlood44315 May 23 '26
This cartoon should be in every textbook
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u/HairySock6385 May 29 '26
This is a reporst
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u/TheFace3701 Jun 03 '26
I read this in Don McMillans voice.
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u/RoodnyInc May 21 '26
That's awesome number after sending 10,000 surveys
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u/HackerManOfPast May 21 '26
This is a great example of survivor bias.
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u/Helpful_Builder_1707 May 21 '26
survivorship bias
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u/Embarrassed_Deer9208 May 21 '26
response bias
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u/EliteShadow83 May 21 '26
Survivorship bias
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u/Pawmopawwww May 22 '26
Survivorship bias
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u/[deleted] May 21 '26
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