# new Games Mag contest: Most Average Person in America **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947 "2004-01-25T03:47:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/1 "2004-01-25T03:47:37Z")
Games Magazine’s newest contest, **The Most Average Person in America** (March 2004 issue) is an intriguing sort of puzzle. There are 10 multiple choice questions, ranging from 2 possible answers to 6 possible answers. At each question, whoever selects the most popular answer continues to the next question. Whoever gets through all 10 wins. If necessary, there is an 11th “tie-breaker” question, which is “What percentage of all entries to this contest, expressed as a whole number, made it this far?” Whoever is closest wins, if there is a tie. For example, on the first question, 60% of the entries said “a,” and I was in that 60%, so I move on. In the second question, I was in the 70% that said “b” for that question, so I move on. The number of people still alive at this point is (.6)(.7)= 42% of the total entries. In the third question, I was in the 40% that said “b.” I wasn’t in the majority, so my entry is eliminated. (This is just an example. I imagine that the entries will be much more evenly divided, at least on most questions.) This is interesting because, in trying to decide how to answer, you must try to guess what everyone else will do. But they’re thinking the same thing, so now you’re thinking about what everyone _thinks_ everyone else will do. It’s a vicious cycle. Anyway, if we could get a whole bunch of people to conspire to answer the same way, everyone involved in the conspiracy would have a greater chance of winning. Of course, there will probably be around 5000 entries\* so we’d need a pretty good number of people to get involved in order to make one answer significantly more popular than it would otherwise have been. (You can enter as many times as you want, but each entry must be mailed separately. Would it make a difference if each person involved in our little scheme mailed in two or three entries?) I doubt that a huge portion of Games readers are going to see this thread, but is there somewhere else (in cyberspace or meatspace) where we could organize a group to help each other win this? Would it even work? \*the results of last months contest say that 1942 people entered, and that one was much harder, so I think 5000 is a pretty good guesstimate ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/2 "2004-01-25T05:06:36Z")
I saw that, but figured my tastes and opinions are too far out on the curve to match anybody else. I’ll give it a shot, though, and post my answers tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![SnoopyFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SnoopyFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnoopyFan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/3 "2004-01-25T09:13:46Z")
Link??? ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/4 "2004-01-25T20:22:18Z")
Sorry, **SnoopyFan** , but a bit of googling seems to show that Games doesn’t have a website. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/5 "2004-01-25T22:49:05Z")
Observation 1. Pick the first option? It’s the obvious thing to try when you’re trying to think like lots of other people. Observation 2. A tie breaker ‘if necessary’? I would have thought at least two people would of necessity get through each round, assuming more than two people enter. (And that if everyone picks different choices they either all go through, or have to have a tie-breaker.) ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/6 "2004-01-25T23:01:07Z")
A tie-breaker isn’t necessarily necessary because answers are counted even if that person is already disqualified. Imagine there’s only two questions and only three entries: Entry 1: AA Entry 2: BB Entry 3: AB Then Entry 3 would be the uncontested winner. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/7 "2004-01-25T23:41:36Z")
:smack: Of course. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/8 "2004-01-25T23:43:29Z")
[smack] Ironically, that last post included a [smack] smiley which doesn’t seem to have shown up… ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/9 "2004-01-26T00:17:23Z")
> [@Achernar](#): > > A tie-breaker isn’t necessarily necessary because answers are counted even if that person is already disqualified. Imagine there’s only two questions and only three entries: > > Entry 1: AA > Entry 2: BB > Entry 3: AB > > Then Entry 3 would be the uncontested winner. Not quite. If I understand correctly, 1 and 3 both said A, thus they make up the majority and they go on to the next question. Entry 2 is effectively thrown away. At the second question, all answers were equally popular, so they both go on to question three. Since you said there’s only two questions, the tie-breaker would be necessary at this point. So I think the tie-breaker isn’t technically necessary in every situation, but it is most likely that it will be, I think. By the way, I strongly suspect that the answer to the tie-breaker will be zero. Not exactly zero, but it said to express it as a whole number. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/10 "2004-01-26T00:33:56Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > Not quite. If I understand correctly, 1 and 3 both said A, thus they make up the majority and they go on to the next question. Entry 2 is effectively thrown away. At the second question, all answers were equally popular, so they both go on to question three. Since you said there’s only two questions, the tie-breaker would be necessary at this point. So I think the tie-breaker isn’t technically necessary in every situation, but it is most likely that it will be, I think. By the way, I strongly suspect that the answer to the tie-breaker will be zero. Not exactly zero, but it said to express it as a whole number. Does it say that? IMHO your OP could be read either way (once A. pointed that out). His way would make sense imho, but your way seems possible. But, if the average _were_ only among those that got that far, then I still don’t see a situation where a tie-breaker would be unnescessary (except only one person entering). I agree that 0 seems a likely answer. If every round half the people were eliminated (about what would happen if people chose randomly, and there were only two choices) then less than 0.1% would get through ten rounds. Though if so you’d think there’s a chance several people would put that down. They probably just call them equally normal and flip a coin then 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/11 "2004-01-26T01:01:06Z")
I should point out that I based my interpretation on the OP. I haven’t seen the latest Games. I sent in a subscription a couple of weeks ago, but it hasn’t started up yet. ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/12 "2004-01-26T02:46:53Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > This is interesting because, in trying to decide how to answer, you must try to guess what everyone else will do. But they’re thinking the same thing, so now you’re thinking about what everyone **thinks** everyone else will do. Sounds like the way people are approaching the 2004 presidential election. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-games-mag-contest-most-average-person-in-america/225947/13 "2004-01-26T05:47:18Z")
The contest rules say those entries with the most popular answer to the first question will proceed to the second, while all others “will be eliminated from the contest, and their answers to later questions _will not be counted_.” I won’t give the questions here (you’ll have to buy the magazine), but here are my answers (i,e, what I think everybody else will think), so **TJdude825** can start compiling his stats. 1. b 2. a 3. a 4. c 5. c 6. b 7. d 8. d 9. e 10. c 11. 2