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The way they were…

by henrycopeland
Tuesday, August 31st, 2004

Google.com circa 1997. (Via NewYorkish.) Amazing how consistent and simple Google.com has been.

Check out how badly New Yorkers and GOP delegates misperceive NY’s demographics. New Yorkers think 35% of their fellow citizens are on welfare. GOPers think its 24%. The reality is 6%. Similarly, New Yorkers think 20% of their peers are millionaires. GOPers think that 13% of Gothamists are Seven-figured. The reality? Less than 1%.

In general, do survey respondents usually assume the curve’s tails are much fatter?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2004 at Aug 31, 04 | 2:05 pm and is filed under Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “The way they were…”

  1. charlie Says:
    September 9th, 2004 at Sep 09, 04 | 6:48 am

    Perhaps this explains it: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, and everybody thinks they’re sitting directly on it.

    (Is it normal, anyway, to expect a normal distribution, with elegant slender tails? It’s logical, sure, but I really don’t know many people who are more logical than wishful.)

    -Charlie

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