# I challenge the Dope to answer this poll with the required percentages **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 7, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534 "2013-02-07T01:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/101 "2013-02-13T00:07:34Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Okay. > > So over 7% of those who participated in this game BOTH did not bother to read or could not comprehend the clearly stated rules (or ignored them because they thought they were stupid) AND thought that the smartest move choosing blind (what they thought the game _should_ be) was to choose 5%. > > That means that most likely more than 7% of those who choose to play this game did not bother to read or could not understand or thumbed at the clearly stated rules. Which does not speak well of the make-up of this board. But how much more? How much overlap is there? > > I suspect that the two greatly co-vary – that most of those who did not bother to read/could understand what they read are also people who would think that 5% was the wisest choice to make blind. > > It might be that the numbers would not be much different if this _was_ done blind as odds are the people who read and comprehend woud also not choose 5% as the smartest choice. Personally I’m surprised it’s only 7%. If the Board was more representative of the public as a whole I’d expect to see something like 10-15% voting that way. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/102 "2013-02-13T00:12:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by DSeid View Post > Okay. > > So over 7% of those who participated in this game BOTH did not bother to read or could not comprehend the clearly stated rules (or ignored them because they thought they were stupid) AND thought that the smartest move choosing blind (what they thought the game should be) was to choose 5%. > > That means that most likely more than 7% of those who choose to play this game did not bother to read or could not understand or thumbed at the clearly stated rules. Which does not speak well of the make-up of this board. But how much more? How much overlap is there? > > I suspect that the two greatly co-vary – that most of those who did not bother to read/could understand what they read are also people who would think that 5% was the wisest choice to make blind. > > It might be that the numbers would not be much different if this was done blind as odds are the people who read and comprehend woud also not choose 5% as the smartest choice. Remember, 5% was the correct choice for a majority of the people who picked it. Currently, there are 379 responses. Thus, 18 of the 28 people who picked 5% were correct to do so. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/103 "2013-02-13T00:14:37Z")
Haha this is so hilarious! I love it 😃 I never dreamed this thread would be so entertaining. The thing about this is that only one person can win the challenge, but in order for that ONE person to win it, everyone else has to act appropriately and help them win. A person who looks ahead and sees which response still needs a vote, and chooses to vote, is sacrificing their only chance of winning so that another person might win. So looking ahead of time might help you, but if you look ahead and vote for a category that still needs a vote, you obviously aren’t going to win unless yours is the last vote needed. It would ONLY help YOU win if there were only one vote left needed to get the percentages. So, looking ahead of time, for the VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE CHOOSING TO VOTE IN THE POLL WILL NOT HELP THEM WIN. It _MIGHT_ help, if there were only ONE vote needed and YOU were that vote. I also am shocked that 5% isn’t higher than it is. I see it as amazing that it’s only as high as ~7.5%. I am also shocked that 50% isn’t more like 30%! More of you want to work together than I could have possibly imagined. ---
**Author:** ![Jr.DNA\_test](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@Jr.DNA\_test](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jr.DNA_test)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/104 "2013-02-13T00:19:53Z")
…I’m not sure there’s a winner here. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/105 "2013-02-13T00:26:05Z")
Several of you seem to be ignoring the likelihood that some of the 5% voters are deliberately throwing off the proportions. Do you imagine that you can get hundreds of people to play this game without _anyone_ deciding to mess with it? And given the setup, for someone with perverse motivation, just a single extra vote in the 5% line pushes the whole thing significantly off. It’s gotten farther off since I voted a couple days ago. > [@drewtwo99](#): > > The thing about this is that only one person can win the challenge, but in order for that ONE person to win it, everyone else has to act appropriately and help them win. A person who looks ahead and sees which response still needs a vote, and chooses to vote, is sacrificing their only chance of winning so that another person might win. Well, the thread title offered the challenge to the whole board, so I’m not surprised that most people ‘played’ in a cooperative spirit. But when you put it like _this_, you encourage more people to throw it further off, to guarantee that no individual can ‘win.’ ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/106 "2013-02-13T00:28:11Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Several of you seem to be ignoring the likelihood that some of the 5% voters are deliberately throwing off the proportions. Do you imagine that you can get hundreds of people to play this game without _anyone_ deciding to mess with it? And given the setup, for someone with perverse motivation, just a single extra vote in the 5% line pushes the whole thing significantly off. It’s gotten farther off since I voted a couple days ago. It’s for this exact reason why I think any scientific poll that comes out in the media always shows no less than about 7% of a given population supporting the most absurd principles. Sure, some of that 7% might actually believe that slavery should be reinstated, or women should never be allowed to speak in public, or whatever, but a good chunk of that 7% is probably just fucking with the pollster. I figured ahead of time when I made this poll that a few people would probably fuck with the results on purpose, and so far, we’ve had one poster here who admitted to doing so already, in this thread! And I smiled and thought, “how predictably quaint.” ---
**Author:** ![Jr.DNA\_test](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@Jr.DNA\_test](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jr.DNA_test)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/107 "2013-02-13T00:29:10Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > What has cracked me up is the insistence by those that looked before choosing that they are somehow intellectually superior to those that didn’t. Whether that is true or not has NOTHING to do with this poll. > > Quite frankly, I think we are all monkeys for even considering the poll in th first place. > > Signed, > Jamoke Monkey Apply this to rectitude and perversion. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/108 "2013-02-13T00:48:11Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I also am shocked that 5% isn’t higher than it is. I see it as amazing that it’s only as high as ~7.5%. I am also shocked that 50% isn’t more like 30%! More of you want to work together than I could have possibly imagined. I think this is a good exercise in management: if the rules are clearly stated, and the goal is understood, and the rewards articulated, then most people will indeed want to work together and contribute. I submit that the important part of the instructions was buried too far into the OP to be recognizable, and that there was no reward for anyone to comply with the rules anyway. Meh. What the fuck do I know? I’m not [Tom Peters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Peters). ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/109 "2013-02-13T01:31:51Z")
I’m too scared to vote. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/110 "2013-02-13T01:40:40Z")
[A simpler poll](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=682163) ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/111 "2013-02-13T02:05:55Z")
> [@Jr.DNA\_test](#): > > Apply this to rectitude and perversion. i would but i have no idea what you mean. ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/112 "2013-02-13T02:15:13Z")
Voted blind for 10% and got the following results: This poll will close on 03-08-2013 at 08:22 PM 50% 188 48.96% 20% 75 19.53% 15% 55 14.32% 10% 38 9.90% 5% 28 7.29% Voters: 384. Cool poll! ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/113 "2013-02-13T03:10:45Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Several of you seem to be ignoring the likelihood that some of the 5% voters are deliberately throwing off the proportions. Do you imagine that you can get hundreds of people to play this game without _anyone_ deciding to mess with it? And given the setup, for someone with perverse motivation, just a single extra vote in the 5% line pushes the whole thing significantly off. It’s gotten farther off since I voted a couple days ago. The [similar poll](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=682163) that **Little Nemo** put up shows this perfectly - there are more votes for the 0% option than for the 100% option. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/114 "2013-02-13T04:23:05Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Remember, 5% was the correct choice for a majority of the people who picked it. Currently, there are 379 responses. Thus, 18 of the 28 people who picked 5% were correct to do so. But at the time almost all of them voted they were putting the 5% group increasingly over 5%. More who bothered to read the op and who had some basic reading comprehension then tried to offset them but more who both then came along and bumped 5% even higher. The second person to vote 5% most certainly did so before there were 20 votes cast. The third before 60 were. As for “winning” – I did not see the goal for any single person to “win” so much as this was a challenge to see if this group could function in a cooperative manner to achieve a very simple goal. There was a token prize for the person who proved that the group achieved the goal, not for having been the person who achieved the goal. It should have been achievable with 20 posters with any sort of functional teamwork and any basic reading comprehension, or barring that, less than 5% believing (sorry but no other way to put this) stupidly that _they_ would need to be the special one to put the 5% vote in. In short it proves that as a group this board is unable to achieve even \*a very basic \*goal that requires teamwork because of a minority that is some combination of unwilling to read, unable to comprehend, too stupid to figure out what a reasonable tactic would be (even if voting blind), or perhaps a few who were just jerks intentionally trying to make the goal impossible to achieve. All in all it shows this to be a pretty pathetic group, brought down by a sizable minority of idiots and jerks. Which perhaps is no great surprise. Interesting because this group is not a particularly stupid population. And of particular interest to those of us who in our real lives need to get a variety of professionals to work towards common goals that do not immediately effect their own bottom lines but do impact their long term success as a group. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/115 "2013-02-13T04:47:19Z")
**DSeid,** you have just described how democracy works. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/116 "2013-02-13T15:19:48Z")
Okay, let’s try to calm down and ease off insults or finger pointing. It’s meant to be just a harmless experiment in polling, any outrage and/or hostility should be dialed back a little. ---
**Author:** ![Jr.DNA\_test](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@Jr.DNA\_test](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jr.DNA_test)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/117 "2013-02-13T15:22:33Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > I’m too scared to vote. Hahaha! > [@TriPolar](#): > > **DSeid,** you have just described how democracy works. _groan_ ---
**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:** [February 14, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/118 "2013-02-14T14:39:02Z")
Yes, this poll is obviously unimportant. But I don’t get the attitude that unimportant means it’s okay to mess up. I’m not being emotional here, I just don’t get it. I don’t get the mischievous impulse that so many people seem to have. I do understand voting out of spite, but I don’t understand why people finding something important that you do not would make you spiteful. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/119 "2013-02-14T15:02:13Z")
Do you think most people who voted for 5% at points that no more 5% votes were needed did it out of spite? Personally I doubt that many did (while I am sure it is nonzero), and the posts here argue against it. Most stated that they thought they should vote blind and decided the best vote in that case was 5%. They were honest about it. It was after the fact that they then said, oh this is stupid then. Idle Thoughts, yes it was an experiment in polling and behavior of a group. If your instruction was directed at me I fail to understand how discussing what the experiment reveals about us is “outrage” or “hostility” just because we do not like what the results appear to reveal. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534/120 "2013-02-14T16:40:51Z")
If you were honestly voting blind, you should vote for the fifty percent group because that’s where the most votes should be needed. The only people who should have honestly voted blind for five percent are those who went to the trouble of generating a random number and followed its result. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-challenge-the-dope-to-answer-this-poll-with-the-required-percentages/649534.md?page=7)