Editing 2789: Making Plans

{{comic
| number    = 2789
| date      = June 14, 2023
| title     = Making Plans
| image     = making_plans_2x.png
| imagesize = 217x396px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Oh no, I haven't checked in with Yvonne in YEARS.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ABBIE, ABRAHAM, and an AARDVARK alias AARON. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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.

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. 

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. 

The title text continues the joke, implying that Cueball rarely makes it to the bottom of his alphabetical list; as such, he has not reached out to his friend Yvonne in a very long time. She may even have assumed he has been {{w|Ghosting (behavior)|ghosting}} her, having seemingly not attempted to make return contact for that while either, but Cueball seems unable to distinguish between willing and enthusiastic contacts in general so his general social ineptness may be as much to blame as the enforced alphabetical priority of his friendship groups.

Peculiar effects of alphabetization were also the subject of [[2927: Alphabetical Cartogram]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Megan.]
:Cueball: Tonight is pub trivia with Annie and Beth.
:Cueball: And tomorrow Alex and I are seeing a movie. I also invited Andrew and Amy but I haven't heard back.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I'm realizing I should really switch to sorting my phone contacts by most recent.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]