# Pub quiz cheat entrapment. Questions that Google to a distinctive, obscure, wrong answer **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 18, 2012, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109 "2012-10-18T10:24:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/1 "2012-10-18T10:24:35Z")
We’ve got a corporate quiz happening in November - last year, there was a lot of cheating with people (brazenly, in some cases) googling the answers on their smartphones (despite this being forbidden). Anyway, I thought it would be interesting if a couple of decoy questions could be introduced - where Google gives a first answer that is: [ul] [li]Distinctive (maybe even worded in a distinctive way, so we can be confident it was googled, rather than just remembered)[/li][li]Obscure or esoteric (i.e. not something someone would be likely to know already)[/li][li]Wrong[/li][/ul] Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/2 "2012-10-18T11:03:18Z")
One obvious source would be to google some semi-obscure quotes. Very often they get attributed to the wrong person. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/3 "2012-10-18T11:12:37Z")
[This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554945)\*addressed the same issue a while back. You (!) suggested Snopes as a target site, but the problem is that some people will be wrong because they remembered the urban legend rather than because they googled it. Is there going to be a penalty for getting the wrong answers on these questions? If it were to cost, say 10% of total available points then this will be a powerful deterrent - if it’s just one missed point, less so. (One solution might be just to bluff - tell people ahead of time that there are booby-trap questions, even if you can’t find any. This will work if you also announce a big penalty, I should think.) \*Yes, I found it by googling for “google wrong answers”. You can’t fight the system. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/4 "2012-10-18T11:23:56Z")
And include a picture round. Identify pictures of either famous religious sites, national treasures, natural structures or icons from pop culture, scenes from movies. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/5 "2012-10-18T12:19:14Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554945)\*addressed the same issue a while back. You (!) suggested Snopes as a target site, but the problem is that some people will be wrong because they remembered the urban legend rather than because they googled it. I’d forgotten all about that thread (and my response). > [@](#): > > Is there going to be a penalty for getting the wrong answers on these questions? If it were to cost, say 10% of total available points then this will be a powerful deterrent - if it’s just one missed point, less so. Scorn, pointing and laughing, negative points, probably. > [@](#): > > (One solution might be just to bluff - tell people ahead of time that there are booby-trap questions, even if you can’t find any. This will work if you also announce a big penalty, I should think.) Maybe, but we might then get people who complain that they held back a correct answer because they feared it was an obvuious trap. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/6 "2012-10-18T14:36:30Z")
I’m not saying you _should_ do this, or even that it would definitely work, but I’m just saying that if the clear top google result for a question is a particular wikipedia entry, and if someone went in to wikipedia and edited (falsely) the entry a few minutes before the quiz, then the false entry would probably still be there during the quiz to catch cheating contestants. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/7 "2012-10-18T15:17:50Z")
How Many K in a pbjs…or whatever that weird equation is that keeps floating round here is, that I’ve never understood, lol. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/8 "2012-10-18T18:56:44Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > I’m not saying you _should_ do this, or even that it would definitely work, but I’m just saying that if the clear top google result for a question is a particular wikipedia entry, and if someone went in to wikipedia and edited (falsely) the entry a few minutes before the quiz, then the false entry would probably still be there during the quiz to catch cheating contestants. Actually it almost certainly wouldn’t. Unless you are very good at wikipedia vandalism or attack a very obscure subject your misleading edits would be reverted very rapidly. Also you need to rely on google re-indexing it. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/9 "2012-10-18T20:04:56Z")
You could ask unique questions that can’t be googled? Like math, physics, or chemistry problems. How about questions like, “estimate the mass of the air in this room”. Give the density of air, but force people to estimate lengths. Not real brain busters of course, we don’t want people having to solve wave equations. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/10 "2012-10-19T00:36:40Z")
What I’ve noticed is you either know it or you don’t and google searches take time. Solution - only first 3 correct answers get points. ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/11 "2012-10-19T00:56:21Z")
Keep in mind that anything obscure but specific mentioned in this thread will likely come up as a top search result in Google, possibly revealing the entrapment ploy. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/12 "2012-10-19T01:16:50Z")
I go to a regular pub quiz on Friday nights that cuts down on smartphone cheating with the simple tactic of reading the questions quickly. I.e., there are seven rounds. Each round has 10 questions. The quizmaster reads each question and gives no more than about 10 seconds for teams to write down the answer before he goes to the next one. Once he reads the last question, you only have about half a minute before he requests all papers to be turned in, and then you start again for round 2. There is also a picture round, as someone described earlier, and an “identify this song” round. You can still cheat with a smartphone, but it’s a lot harder because while you’re trying to look up the answer to #1, he’s already reading #2, etc. If people are brazenly cheating, you need to have an arbitrator who goes around and confiscates smartphones from people. Either that or dock people a 5-point fine every time you see a smartphone on the table or in someone’s hands. Cheaters suck. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/13 "2012-10-19T08:04:28Z")
I believe cartographers used to (still?) do something like this. They’d fabricate a village with an obscure name and throw it on a map. If the village later appeared on maps from other map makers, next thing they knew, Blam!, the culprit would find themself standing in front of Judge Judy. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/14 "2012-10-19T09:20:42Z")
Copyright traps. Thing is, those are fictional - this one needs to be true (i.e. there is a right answer) ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/15 "2012-10-19T09:35:46Z")
I’ve tried a couple of misconceptions that I’ve heard commonly (or once believed): Elephants are the only animal with 4 knees Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb Logie Baird invented television Golf was invented in Scotland and in each case Google offered several cites with the common wrong answer but at least one throwing doubt on it. I guess it depends if people are going to go straight for the top answer - you could encourage this by controlling the time they have, as per MsWhatsit, but it’s not certain. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/16 "2012-10-19T09:38:27Z")
NB - for some, Google auto-complete even suggests adding “myth” on to the end of your search! ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/17 "2012-10-19T12:43:15Z")
Find a phrase which garners no hits on Google. Set up a website which turns up when you search for that phrase. Ask the question, “Which famous 17th century eccentric said… [phrase]?” When people get to that website, they find that you have encoded a loud, autoplaying siren noise. Instant disqualification and public shaming for anybody you hear looking at the website. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/18 "2012-10-19T12:49:28Z")
> [@Pasta](#): > > Keep in mind that anything obscure but specific mentioned in this thread will likely come up as a top search result in Google, possibly revealing the entrapment ploy. Damn it. Foiled again. So I have nothing useful to add, but still want to say that I love this idea. As a (not particularly good) bar trivia player and hater of cheats, I’m on board with this. Also, I like the photo suggestion. It might not be exactly what you’re looking for, but it’s pretty cheat proof, which is good enough. It doesn’t out and shame the frauds, sure, but take what you can get. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/19 "2012-10-19T13:08:32Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > How Many K in a pbjs…or whatever that weird equation is that keeps floating round here is, that I’ve never understood, lol. I’d forgotten about that clusterfuck of a question. lol ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109/20 "2012-10-19T13:08:50Z")
Offer a large point bounty to anyone who snaps a photo of (or otherwise catches) another team cheating. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-quiz-cheat-entrapment-questions-that-google-to-a-distinctive-obscure-wrong-answer/638109.md?page=2)