The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: September 19, 2010

Official News page 9


REAL LIFE NEWS: GENES AFFECT SURVEY RESPONSES

by Hazed

If someone asks you to take a survey, do you:

A) Respond
B) Tell them to take a hike
C) Don't know

New research shows that option B is the one most people go for, with humanity in general being genetically predisposed not to take part in surveys. However, there's a small number of people who do respond, and its all down to their genes. Call them the survey mutants. In fact, call US the survey mutants, because I am one of those people who always wants to take surveys, so I must have that gene too.

This comes from a cunning experiment in which a survey was sent out to over 1,000 sets of twins, and which of them responded was examined. The scientists in America and Singapore found that "the behavior of one identical twin was a good predictor for the other... but that the same did not hold true for fraternal twins."

The exact nature of the survey-friendly gene is unknown, as is the mechanism by which it affects the propensity to respond. But it is clear that the gene is rare, with most of the sets of twins not bothering to respond. So when you read the results of surveys that say "99% of people say..." bear in mind that only the views of a tiny proportion of the human race are being taken into account.

In other words, don't believe survey results!


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