A PERIGEE BOOK
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CORRELATED
Copyright © 2014 by Shaun Gallagher
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eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-59970-9
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First edition: July 2014
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To all those who have joined in the fun at Correlated.org.
TOPICS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
’80s Music
AAA (The Auto Club)
Absent-Mindedness
Adam and Eve
Air Freshener
Aisle Seat vs. Window Seat
Aliens
All-Nighters
Bananas
Best Friends
Big Government vs. Big Business
Black Friday
Blind Dates
Blind vs. Deaf
Blood
Body Piercings
Bowling Skills
Boycotting
Braces
Breast Implants
Broken Bones
Bruising
Bumper Stickers
Burping at Will
Bury vs. Flush
Business Cards
Camping
Cat Lovers
Cheating
Checkers vs. Chess
Chef vs. Maid
Chicken Pox
Chiropractic Patients
Classical Music
Cola Discernment
Cold Weather
Cologne/Perfume
Corn on the Cob
Country Music
Court Testimony
Credit Cards
Credit Union Members
Cremation Hesitation
Cruises
Crying and Cursing
Cursive
Death Penalty
Decision Making
Deep-Dish Pizza
Diaries
Dodge Ball vs. Kickball
Donating Blood
Double-Jointedness
Emergency Vehicles
Exclamation Points
Exercise Habits
Extroverts
Eyesight
Fainting
Filtered Water
Fistfights
Flag Burning
Flossing
Foreign Accents
Fraternities and Sororities
Glow Bowling
Going Dutch
Good Dancers
Good Singers
Grapes
Greeting Cards
Guacamole
Hair Dyeing
Handwriting
Horoscopes
Horror Movies
HTML Comprehension
iPods/iPads
Jugglers
Jury Duty
LA vs. NYC
Lactose Intolerance
Lady Gaga Fans
Landlines
Left Handers
Lemons vs. Limes
Leno vs. Letterman
Licorice
Losing One’s Appetite
Macs vs. PCs
Manual Transmission
Marijuana
Married People
Mayonnaise
Moonwalking
Multilingualism
Mushrooms
Music Videos
Mustaches
Nail Biting
Neckties
Neighbors
Nirvana
Noncarbonated Beverages
Non-College Graduates
Nonfiction Lovers
Noses
Older Siblings
On the Radio
Organ Donors
Origami
Pants
Parents
Passwords
People Who Dine Out Frequently
Pepsi vs. Coke
Pessimists
Pet Allergies
Philadelphia
Piano Players
Pie vs. Cake
Poetry
Poets
Private School
Privilege vs. Ambition
Professional Wrestling
Public Speaking
Restaurants and Bars
Roller Coasters
Rolling Rs
Sandwiches
Scouts
Sea-Monkeys
Security vs. Liberty
Sense of Direction
Shower Time
Single-Sex Schools
Skiers
Skydiving
Slash vs. the Edge
Sleep Position
Smokers
Sneaking In
Soda vs. Pop
South Park vs. The Simpsons
Speeding Tickets
Spelling
Spicy Food
Spiders vs. Snakes
Step-Parents
Stringed Instruments
Subjective Morality
Surfers
Sushi
Sweet Snacks
Tactfulness
Tattoos
Tea Drinkers
Teachers
Texting
Theists
Thin People
Tic-Tac-Toe
Time Travel
Tipping a Server
Toilet Paper
Tongue Dexterity
Touch Typing
TV in the Bedroom
Unemployment
Vegetarians
Video Games
Volunteerism
Voting
White Noise
Wisdom Teeth
Women
Work Less vs. Earn
More
World War III
Yoga
Zombie Victims
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
INTRODUCTION
If you’ve ever wondered whether iPod owners are more likely to stir their drinks counterclockwise, whether nonfiction lovers are more likely to have a positive opinion about France, or whether tea drinkers are more likely to prefer mechanical pencils, then this is the book for you!
The data that underpin the statistics you’ll find in this book come from Correlated.org, a website devoted to uncovering surprising correlations between seemingly unrelated things.
Each day, a new poll question is posted on the site, and at the end of the day, the poll responses are tallied up and compared with the results of every previous poll to find the two responses with the strongest correlation.
For this book, I’ve taken Correlated.org’s large data set—1,089,173 poll responses from 36,305 respondents—and generated all-new statistics in which the results of each poll were compared not only with previous polls but with the entirety of the available data. For the 182 topics chosen for inclusion in the book, the median sample size was 2,290 and the mean sample size was 2,222.
Although the statistics in this book are all based on real data, the methodology by which the correlations are generated is not intended to stand up to professional scrutiny. (In fact, it would probably make a professional statistician weep.) Rather, the correlations are intended to be amusing and thought provoking, and to illustrate some of the absurdities that result when you ignore tricky concepts such as confounding variables or the multiple-testing problem.
I hope you enjoy the surprising statistics presented here, and I hope you’ll join the thousands of others who help generate new correlations by contributing to Correlated.org.
’80s Music
40% of people have boycotted a company.
But among those who consider music from the ’80s to be oldies, 52% have boycotted a company.
----------------
53% of people are Foo Fighters fans.
But among those who consider music from the ’80s to be oldies, only 41% are Foo Fighters fans.
----------------
70% of people are adept at using chopsticks.
But among those who consider music from the ’80s to be oldies, only 58% are adept at using chopsticks.
DOUBLE PLAY
You’re extremely likely to consider music from the ’80s to be oldies if you both:
always wash your hands after using a public restroom
prefer Jake Gyllenhaal’s movies to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s
NO CORRELATION
People who consider music from the ’80s to be oldies are almost exactly as likely as the average person to:
have been involved in student government
dislike honey-mustard sauce
have a nine-to-five type of job
AAA (The Auto Club)
38% of people have had a poison ivy rash.
But among those who belong to AAA, 54% have had a poison ivy rash.
----------------
77% of people say that if a person dislikes them, it’s generally because they don’t know “the real me.”
But among those who belong to AAA, 89% say that if a person dislikes them, it’s generally because they don’t know “the real me.”
----------------
29% of people have visited a chiropractor.
But among those who belong to AAA, 40% have visited a chiropractor.
DOUBLE PLAY
You’re extremely likely to belong to AAA if you both:
prefer a hot breakfast over a cold breakfast
consider yourself more generous than the average person
NO CORRELATION
People who belong to AAA are almost exactly as likely as the average person to:
prefer Google Chrome as their browser
say they’d agree to work a midnight-to-8-a.m. shift for the next 10 years if the pay were $1 million a year
have never had asthma
Absent-Mindedness
25% of people say they are better at punctuality than punctuation.
But among those who wouldn’t describe themselves as absent-minded, 38% say they are better at punctuality than punctuation.
----------------
32% of people say they had a negative first impression of Pope Francis.
But among those who wouldn’t describe themselves as absent-minded, 44% had a negative first impression of Pope Francis.
----------------
42% of people regularly eat yogurt.
But among those who wouldn’t describe themselves as absent-minded, 52% regularly eat yogurt.
DOUBLE PLAY
You’re extremely likely to say you aren’t absent-minded if you both:
aren’t a coward
think clowns are fun
NO CORRELATION
People who wouldn’t describe themselves as absent-minded are almost exactly as likely as the average person to:
say the city where they live is more important than the job they do
keep it a secret if they found out they had only six months to live
have participated in an eating contest
Adam and Eve
38% of people ascend the stairs two at a time.
But among those who don’t think Adam and Eve had belly buttons, 50% ascend the stairs two at a time.
----------------
36% of people dislike sideburns.
But among those who don’t think Adam and Eve had belly buttons, 48% dislike sideburns.
----------------
49% of people prefer Steven over Stephen.
But among those who don’t think Adam and Eve had belly buttons, 60% prefer Steven over Stephen.
DOUBLE PLAY
You’re extremely likely to think that Adam and Eve didn’t have belly buttons if you both:
find Australians sexy
are not a fan of Coldplay
NO CORRELATION
People who don’t think Adam and Eve had belly buttons are almost exactly as likely as the average person to:
refuse to tip a server when they receive poor service
prefer to be the X in tic-tac-toe
own flat-screen TVs
Air Freshener
66% of people like cotton candy.
But among those who use air freshener in their home, 79% like cotton candy.
----------------
45% of people say they are closer to lower class than upper class.
But among those who use air freshener in their home, 58% say they are closer to lower class than upper class.
----------------
42% of people have bouts of indigestion more often than bouts of indignation.
But among those who use air freshener in their home, 52% have bouts of indigestion more often than bouts of indignation.
DOUBLE PLAY
You’re extremely likely to use air freshener in your home if you both:
prefer debit cards over credit cards
regularly wear cologne/perfume
NO CORRELATION
People who use air freshener in their home are almost exactly as likely as the average person to:
fear public speaking
apply antiperspirant at night
put a cap on uppercase Js
Aisle Seat vs. Window Seat
34% of people tend to micromanage when they’re in a leadership role.
But among those who prefer an aisle seat on a plane, only 20% tend to micromanage when they’re in a leadership role.
----------------
41% of people aren’t bothered by
parents who kiss their adult children on the lips.
But among those who prefer an aisle seat on a plane, 54% aren’t bothered by parents who kiss their adult children on the lips.
----------------
39% of people believe the chicken came before the egg.
But among those who prefer an aisle seat on a plane, 52% believe the chicken came before the egg.
DOUBLE PLAY
You’re extremely likely to prefer an aisle seat on a plane if you both:
say your primary alarm clock is not your phone
are good at parallel parking
NO CORRELATION
People who prefer an aisle seat on a plane are almost exactly as likely as the average person to:
prefer to dry their hands with paper towels in public restrooms
say they can perform a handstand
cut the fabric tags off of clothing
STATISTICS 101:
MARGIN OF ERROR
Suppose you live in a bustling city with half a million residents, and you want to know what percentage of those residents prefer Beethoven to Mozart.
It would be impractical to ask all 500,000 of them, so instead, you decide to ask a representative sample.
As you might imagine, the larger your sample size, the more likely their responses will reflect the preferences of the entire population.
A poll’s margin of error tells you the range of expected variation between your poll results and the value you would get if you polled the entire population. Margin of error decreases as your sample size grows.
Here’s an example: Suppose you poll 1,000 residents and find that 48% prefer Beethoven and 52% prefer Mozart.
With about 95% confidence (see page 19), your margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, meaning it’s highly likely that if you were to repeat your survey with another sample group, the percentage of people who say they prefer Beethoven would be between 45% and 51%, and the percentage of people who say they prefer Mozart would be between 49% and 55%.