Men talk as much as Women? Options

[chook]

i think we can all agree that men talk so much as compared to women because it takes that long to get them to spread their legs.

I agree, coupled with the fact that when women are talking and no men are around, it does not count.

[RitalinJunkie]

fun fact...

of the (now) 17 posts made on this topic, only 3 were by females.

data shows that men talk an estimated 8.33 times more than women

[impala454]

Its how you handle the numbers. In a small population you cannot take a small selection, because there is a large chance that it won't represent the whole population.
Lets assume a population where half the people believe that Impala is wrong and half where they think Test is wrong. Population size won't matter, but how many we take will. And assuming that its evenly distributed. If I took this survey in the art department, I'd get skewed results than at the BA. So lets say I asked 3 people, based on the truth here is what they could say.
This is based on combinations of people responding
Who is full of shit?
3 impala 0 cat (.5)^3 = .125
2 impala 1 cat 2!(.5)^3 + (.5)^3 = .375
1 impala 2 cat (.5)^3 + 2!(.5)^3 = .375
0 impala 3 cat (.5)^3 = .125

If the sample size increases, then it is more likely that the reported results match the population. In other words, as more people are asked, it is less likely that the results are reflecting the truth. Statistical methods such as chi^2 and variance from the norm are based on solid math. Biggest problem is how these issues are dealt with.

Impala I am ashamed of you calling statistics just numbers. This is much more defined than computer science.
Cat, the problem is with people doing research methods.

so would you agree or not that recording 400 students for roughly 1 hour a day for 10 days is sufficient to apply the result to the entire country?

[James]

The problem is that you're getting your information from a newspaper instead of reading the actual journal. I'm sure all of the concerns have been addressed there or it never would have made it to publication. For instance, the newspaper never actually states in which environment men talk as much as women.

[impala454]

well i'd assume the environment is whatever environment the 400 students they recorded talk in.

[James]

No you don't. You assume the environment is North America.

[impala454]

No you don't. You assume the environment is North America.

so you think the newspaper is lying when it says:

Their study of 400 male and female students in the United States and Mexico found that males and females both say about 16,000 words a day, or 17 words a minute during waking hours.

[James]

No, but I think you took the study to the extreme and assumed it generalized all of North America when it may have only been generalizing North American college students.

[chook]

so would you agree or not that recording 400 students for roughly 1 hour a day for 10 days is sufficient to apply the result to the entire country?

it would make my 95% certainty if it was an unbiased sampling, but I would no claim that way.