Editing 2789: Making Plans
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This comic is about bias due to {{w|alphabetical order}}. According to Wikipedia, "The practice in certain fields of ordering citations in bibliographies by the surnames of their authors has been found to create bias in favor of authors with surnames which appear earlier in the alphabet, while this effect does not appear in fields in which bibliographies are ordered chronologically."[https://decisionslab.unl.edu/pubs/stevens_duque_2018_SM.pdf] Similar effects have also been identified with the ordering of candidates on ballot papers.[https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/ballot-order-effects] In essence, humans tend to favor whatever is at the top of any given list or data set, or may only assess the first few options until they reach one that is 'good enough', thus never evaluating those further down the list; this is one reason why random shuffling is important in any scientifically rigorous trial or opinion survey. | This comic is about bias due to {{w|alphabetical order}}. According to Wikipedia, "The practice in certain fields of ordering citations in bibliographies by the surnames of their authors has been found to create bias in favor of authors with surnames which appear earlier in the alphabet, while this effect does not appear in fields in which bibliographies are ordered chronologically."[https://decisionslab.unl.edu/pubs/stevens_duque_2018_SM.pdf] Similar effects have also been identified with the ordering of candidates on ballot papers.[https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/ballot-order-effects] In essence, humans tend to favor whatever is at the top of any given list or data set, or may only assess the first few options until they reach one that is 'good enough', thus never evaluating those further down the list; this is one reason why random shuffling is important in any scientifically rigorous trial or opinion survey. | ||
| β | In the comic, [[Cueball]] is telling [[Megan]] about some of his upcoming plans; tonight he had arranged a meet-up with contacts whose names start with A or B, tomorrow's socializing involves a larger group of A-contacts, but there seems some doubt over some of them. | + | In the comic, [[Cueball]] is telling [[Megan]] about some of his upcoming plans; tonight he had arranged a meet-up with contacts whose names start with A or B, tomorrow's socializing involves a larger group of A-contacts, but there seems some doubt over some of them. It is possible his well-intentioned invites went to defunct/long-unchecked destinations, or the recipients were disinclined to respond to an 'old flame' who suddenly re-establishes contact out of the blue. Alternately, they cannot take seriously an invite to an event far from their current location, or else Cueball has Cc:ed them all and entirely forgotten some personal enmities between some of those he grouped together. |
By this point, though, there is a clear pattern: Cueball has been contacting friends based upon their alphabetical priority in his list of names, instead of making more practical social decisions. One alternative is to maintain contact with those who (regardless of name) were already in more recent and ready contact, perhaps by rearranging the list by "most recently talked to". Although, arguably, this could also be socially detrimental; anyone who happened to descend out of recent contact might never be contacted ''ever again''. Again, these social pitfalls are something that almost everyone has to try to deal with, but Cueball's 'logical' way of handling it is ironically one of the more socially illogical methods available. | By this point, though, there is a clear pattern: Cueball has been contacting friends based upon their alphabetical priority in his list of names, instead of making more practical social decisions. One alternative is to maintain contact with those who (regardless of name) were already in more recent and ready contact, perhaps by rearranging the list by "most recently talked to". Although, arguably, this could also be socially detrimental; anyone who happened to descend out of recent contact might never be contacted ''ever again''. Again, these social pitfalls are something that almost everyone has to try to deal with, but Cueball's 'logical' way of handling it is ironically one of the more socially illogical methods available. | ||
