# Report says 7% of US households paid a bribe within the last year. Valid?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-says-7-of-us-households-paid-a-bribe-within-the-last-year-valid/663819>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 18, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-says-7-of-us-households-paid-a-bribe-within-the-last-year-valid/663819 "2013-07-18T04:51:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-says-7-of-us-households-paid-a-bribe-within-the-last-year-valid/663819/21 "2013-07-20T04:10:53Z")

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What’s it worth to you to find out? :dubious:

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**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2013, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-says-7-of-us-households-paid-a-bribe-within-the-last-year-valid/663819/22 "2013-07-20T04:58:07Z")

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> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> **Measure for Measure** , I can’t fault your raw math but I can for for missing a couple of glaring errors in the base data. In your table, is says that only 13% have had contact with the judicial system in the past year but 15% paid a bride to them. That is impossible unless I am reading it incorrectly. It is similar for land services.

You are reading it incorrectly. 13% had contact with the judicial system. Of that 13%, 15% paid a bribe. Total bribe payers to the judicial system as a share of the sample: .13 \* .15 = 1.95%

Medical: Somebody has some 'splainin to do.

> [@](#):
>
> I looked up the margin of error on this study and it is 3% in the statistical sense meaning that almost all the countries listed in the single digits are statistically tied. That doesn’t tell you much useful information. Combine that with the fact that some small percentage of people enjoy joking around on anonymous surveys (I have done it too) and you end up with no useful information at the low end of the scale.

To put it another way, we shouldn’t place trust in these results until they are published in a peer reviewed journal by authors with some background in statistics. That said we have several years, many countries and even multiple metrics of country corruption. Methinks there is some signal in the data: it’s not all noise. (ETA: I’m not claiming that we will end up with 7% though at the end: I have no idea. )

Also you propose a possible reason why US results would differ than those of Scandinavia: the US has a surplus of wise guys.

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**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-says-7-of-us-households-paid-a-bribe-within-the-last-year-valid/663819/23 "2013-07-20T05:28:56Z")

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> [@mfm](#):
>
> Medical: Somebody has some 'splainin to do.

Maybe somebody bribes the admin to obtain a faster appointment. You might get some bang for 20 bucks this way, except that I doubt whether admins have much ability to let someone jump the queue. Plus, the lack of anecdotes regarding this sort of behavior is rather striking (as noted in the GQ thread). This topic has a crypto-zoological feel to it.

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