Research on "crowd wisdom" applies to ATA

[jarnon]

In crowd wisdom, the 'surprisingly popular' answer can trump ignorance of the masses

This study sheds light on the Ask the Audience lifeline. If two answers get lots of votes, and one of them is the one you were expecting, the other one could be the surprising right answer. Or you could be overthinking the question and the obvious answer is the right one. The higher the question's value, the more likely the surprising answer is right.

[Bob78164]

In crowd wisdom, the 'surprisingly popular' answer can trump ignorance of the masses

This study sheds light on the Ask the Audience lifeline. If two answers get lots of votes, and one of them is the one you were expecting, the other one could be the surprising right answer. Or you could be overthinking the question and the obvious answer is the right one. The higher the question's value, the more likely the surprising answer is right.

I think I posted that strategy on the old Bored many years ago. --Bob

[littlebeast13]

In crowd wisdom, the 'surprisingly popular' answer can trump ignorance of the masses

This study sheds light on the Ask the Audience lifeline. If two answers get lots of votes, and one of them is the one you were expecting, the other one could be the surprising right answer. Or you could be overthinking the question and the obvious answer is the right one. The higher the question's value, the more likely the surprising answer is right.

I think I posted that strategy on the old Bored many years ago. --Bob

I had thought of that strategy before I even found the Bored...

The contestant who got the question about the movie that infamously interrupted the Raiders game back in the day was the perfect example of this. The Wizard of Oz was the clear universal distractor for anyone not familiar with the incident. It came in a virtual (maybe identical, it's only been 17 years) tie with Heidi while the other two answers got hardly any votes. If the answer was Oz, why would an equal number of people vote for Heidi, which didn't stand out from the crowd?

I even referred to such double-spikes as "Heidi ATA's" back when we'd all go Spock/Galahad on the transcripts every morning...

lb13

[ghostjmf]

And I was the one living in AZ at the time of the incident who was real mad when my awaited broadcast of Heidi got knocked off the air & replaced by some game.

[Beebs52]

I thought of thought before the existence of tv.

[TheConfessor]

And I was the one living in AZ at the time of the incident who was real mad when my awaited broadcast of Heidi got knocked off the air & replaced by some game.

Except that's not what happened. The game was still in progress when the broadcast was halted to instead show Heidi at its scheduled time.

[ghostjmf]

I didn't know or care about game. I turned on Heidi at its advertised time. There it was. Then, suddenly, there it wasn't.

There was some stupid game instead (at least where I was, they put the game back on).

Made Heidi fans mad (though we're not the fans that made the news).

Its all a matter of perspective.

[Bob78164]

And I was the one living in AZ at the time of the incident who was real mad when my awaited broadcast of Heidi got knocked off the air & replaced by some game.

Except that's not what happened. The game was still in progress when the broadcast was halted to instead show Heidi at its scheduled time.

I was watching at the time. Ghost is also right. In response to the deluge of callers flooding their switchboard, NBC switched back to the game, leaving Heidi in order to do so. Infamously, they got back to the game too late to pick up the two late Oakland touchdowns that turned a Jets victory into a Jets defeat. --Bob

[TheConfessor]

And I was the one living in AZ at the time of the incident who was real mad when my awaited broadcast of Heidi got knocked off the air & replaced by some game.

Except that's not what happened. The game was still in progress when the broadcast was halted to instead show Heidi at its scheduled time.

I was watching at the time. Ghost is also right. In response to the deluge of callers flooding their switchboard, NBC switched back to the game, leaving Heidi in order to do so. Infamously, they got back to the game too late to pick up the two late Oakland touchdowns that turned a Jets victory into a Jets defeat. --Bob

You seem to be relying on alternative facts that no one else has documented. Heidi was broadcast as scheduled at 7 p.m. EST (6 CST). The network ran a crawl with the final score across the screen during Heidi, but did not return to the broadcast, and lacked the technical ability to do so. I don't know where you watched the game, but the Heidi conflict was only an issue in the Eastern and Central time zones. In the western half of the country, the game was long over before the scheduled Heidi broadcast (and Ghost said she was watching in Arizona).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game

[Bob78164]

Except that's not what happened. The game was still in progress when the broadcast was halted to instead show Heidi at its scheduled time.

I was watching at the time. Ghost is also right. In response to the deluge of callers flooding their switchboard, NBC switched back to the game, leaving Heidi in order to do so. Infamously, they got back to the game too late to pick up the two late Oakland touchdowns that turned a Jets victory into a Jets defeat. --Bob

You seem to be relying on alternative facts that no one else has documented. Heidi was broadcast as scheduled at 7 p.m. EST (6 CST). The network ran a crawl with the final score across the screen during Heidi, but did not return to the broadcast, and lacked the technical ability to do so. I don't know where you watched the game, but the Heidi conflict was only an issue in the Eastern and Central time zones. In the western half of the country, the game was long over before the scheduled Heidi broadcast (and Ghost said she was watching in Arizona).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game

I watched on a portable TV on my grandparents' kitchen table in New York.

I could swear I remember them returning to the game, but it was nearly 50 years ago so I could be misremembering. --Bob

[triviawayne]

Forget crowd wisdom, just do what I did.

[ghostjmf]

I'd love to be able to tell you I was in Ohio, but I remember being in Arizona, coming back home at that time just to watch Heidi, which is why I didn't know the game wasn't over, & watching on my little black & white set. For the young here, that means the the reception was in black-&-white, not the set frame.

We had a color tv in Ohio by that time.

Arizona was a state that didn't, & for all I know still doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time, but by November game-time I think the rest of the country would have been back on EST.