# Click on the dots; they guess your age **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 20, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224 "2013-04-20T16:33:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/101 "2013-04-21T13:10:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Guessed 31, actual 35. > > Maybe it gathered this automatically, but I note that it never asked what operating system we’re using. This would be highly significant, because Macs by default have mouse acceleration turned on, and PCs by default have it turned off (that is to say, on a Mac, a rapid movement of the mouse through some distance will move the cursor further than a slow movement of the same distance). This will cause significant changes in the movement profile of the cursor, which is one of the major factors they claim to use. It’s been on by default on every PC I’ve owned for quite a while. I think it started being on since Windows XP, at least. It guessed me at 41, which is about what I expected. I did not make any effort whatsoever to hurry. Also, I’m pretty sure the pattern ones are controls. And did anyone else try changing the size of the window during the pauses? During the actual tests, that causes the dot to move. ---
**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/102 "2013-04-21T13:30:08Z")
Guess 32 Actual 34 Considering the vast majority of the ages in this thread are in the 30s, I’m not surprised. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/103 "2013-04-21T14:25:44Z")
Guess 42. Real 52. ---
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/104 "2013-04-21T14:54:04Z")
Guess 39 Actual 48 And using a mouse that’s not very responsive. Not sure how accurate this premise is. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/105 "2013-04-21T15:09:09Z")
It was 10 years below my age. Of course, I’d like to think that’s just about right. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/106 "2013-04-22T03:50:15Z")
Guess: 30. I was amused, because I’m twice that. (So I’ve had a lot of time to get used to my trackpad…) ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/107 "2013-04-22T04:23:25Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > They were off by 28 years. It’s a worthless test. People’s ability to manipulate a mouse varies with far more factors than age. In my case they were off 29 years (guessed 34, I am 63). I begin to wonder how real this is as a test of age, or if something else completely different was going on. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/108 "2013-04-22T04:54:28Z")
Off by over a decade. I suspect that the test is a fake, as Sattua suggests. Kinda smells like it. ---
**Author:** ![Gretel\_burps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Gretel\_burps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretel_burps)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/109 "2013-04-22T05:00:32Z")
They guessed 31; I am 32. Seeing the results fellow Dopers are posting here, I am starting to wonder if it’s just random guesses, despite the more or less accurate guess they have given in my case. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/110 "2013-04-22T05:54:01Z")
It pegged me at 30 and I’m 32. I’m pissed. I PC game enough, it should be telling me I’m 16. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/111 "2013-04-22T05:56:28Z")
This is a pretty smart survey. Not that it’s good at guessing ages, guessing ages makes it more likely people will participate. For all we know it’s only comparing mouse and touch input, and doesn’t care about age. Giving people a metric to compare/boast about means more people will try. (Justin Bieber’s IQ is 120! Can you beat him?) Can someone program mouse movements and clicks to see if their guess really depends on mouse behavior? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/112 "2013-04-22T06:14:07Z")
Guess 40 Actual 61 The pattern for dots in a circle was easy to spot. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/113 "2013-04-22T11:41:58Z")
Missed my age by 33%. Yeah, there’s somethng else going on here. Any chance it’s collecting IP addresses or something? ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/114 "2013-04-22T12:26:39Z")
I’m 51 and they guessed 33. I think they have a camera into my system that looks at my face and guesses my age, regardless of how quickly I clicked. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/115 "2013-04-22T12:48:59Z")
They got 29, I’m 43. I thought it would be higher because I have a tremor from medication but I guess the hours and hours I spend clicking every day make up for it. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/116 "2013-04-22T12:52:22Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > Missed my age by 33%. Yeah, there’s somethng else going on here. Any chance it’s collecting IP addresses or something? The site is hosted at Harvard.edu, doubt if they are up to anything shady. The purpose of their test may well be somerthing other than what they say it is, in the time honored tradition of psychological testing, but that’s prolly about it. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/117 "2013-04-22T13:35:14Z")
Seems like it does a good job, as long as you are really between 28 and 34 years old. It guessed 31 for this 52 year old. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/118 "2013-04-22T13:42:27Z")
When I was in college I took introductory psychology and part of passing the class was “volunteering” to be a human subject for several experiments. They were all similar to this test–sit at a computer and do a task. One of them involved coming back for two consecutive weeks. And the first time I sat down to start doing my task, a strange screen came up and the research assistant ran over saying “oops!!!” and re-set it. Yeah, that totally wasn’t an oops. It had something to do with the experiment. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/119 "2013-04-22T13:47:57Z")
Guess 30 Actual 43 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224/120 "2013-04-22T14:01:26Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > The site is hosted at Harvard.edu, doubt if they are up to anything shady. The purpose of their test may well be somerthing other than what they say it is, in the time honored tradition of psychological testing, but that’s prolly about it. Makes sense, perhaps this thread would be more fun if we assume it IS part of somebody’s psych master’s project and play, “Guess the experiment.” It seems rigged to almost never give your correct age–by quite a bit. It also collects your actual age (why would you lie?), how much time you spend in front of a computer (why would you lie), and gives you an opportunity to comment. Hmmm. Looking for what sorts of people might post anonymous, antisocial vs. constructive comments and correlating that with time spent in the matrix? Cyberbullying & trolling seems to be a hot topic these days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/click-on-the-dots-they-guess-your-age/656224.md?page=7)