Unscientific Surveys Archive
This page features an archived collection of our “Unscientific Surveys” feature from 2019-2021.
Featured
This page features an archived collection of our “Unscientific Surveys” feature from 2019-2021.
You may remember back in early April of this year, Ben Yagoda crafted an Unscientific Survey attempting to apply the concept of the “wisdom of the crowd” to the 2021 baseball season. We asked at that nascent part of the season (the Phillies were off to a 4-0 start) to guess how far they would make it into the postseason, if they would at all. Also, we asked how many games you thought they’d win. So, how wise is this crowd?
We asked our subscribers how they felt about being inside with others these days. As we anticipated, the majority of people (62%) responded “it depends.” Only 17% felt truly comfortable being inside with others.
On the heels of publishing our annual summer reading list, we sent out a survey, because we thought it would be interesting to learn how you prefer to read during your leisure time: specifically, where you like to read, and what genres and reading formats you prefer.
Father’s Day was the official start of summer, and now that we’re in the swing of things, we wanted to know what you like to do the most ‘round these parts during the summer months. The results are in.
“The Freshman 15” refers to the number of pounds traditionally gained in one’s first year of college. “The Covid 19,” inevitably, is a cute designation for weight put on during the pandemic. This week’s Unscientific Survey examined how the past year has affected your waistline.
Our latest Unscientific Survey asked you to report on your mental health over the last year and a quarter, and we appreciate those who responded. A slim majority reported they felt about the same, while more than a quarter said things were “somewhat worse.”
In the April 9 issue, Unscientific Survey asked readers to tell us how many Swarthmore homes they had lived in. Here are the results, including many reader comments.
Our last survey attempted to apply the concept of the “wisdom of the crowd” to the upcoming baseball season. We asked you to guess how many games the Phillies will win and how far they’ll get in the postseason.
Our latest Unscientific Survey jibes with what our eyes have seen: Over the past year, Swarthmoreans have taken to the streets. About 81% of readers reported walking more since the pandemic began.
In our latest Unscientific Survey, 36% of respondents self-identified as cord-cutters (or “cord nevers”) who watch either by streaming services or old-school antennas.
We asked you which of the many pressing matters facing President Joe Biden is most important. Here’s what you said.
We asked whether you would get a COVID-19 vaccination when available. Hearteningly, 92% of respondents followed the science and responded that they would; an additional 3% said they weren’t sure, in some cases because they needed more information regarding their specific medical condition.
Anecdotal evidence abounds that COVID-19 has negatively affected people’s sleep, and scientific data is starting to come in. The New York Times recently reported on a study in which 44% of people said their sleep had worsened during the pandemic, compared to 10% who said their sleep had improved. By that standard, Swarthmorean readers are doing pretty well.
As previously noted, the local wine-buying options have significantly opened up recently, hence our Unscientific Survey asking where you procure your vino.
The signs at the borough limits say “Tree City, USA,” but there should really be something there about education as well. Not only are we home to Swarthmore College, but our residents have schooling on their minds. That’s the clear finding of our latest Unscientific Survey, which asked if readers knew what a group of commonly used local initials stood for. The top five most recognizable were all schools or educational bodies.
Stop the presses! People are dialing back their Thanksgiving plans this year! I know, that’s pretty obvious, but we thought it would be interesting to get a more precise sense of what Swarthmoreans are doing, hence our latest Unscientific Survey.
Our most recent Unscientific Survey, on readers’ comfort levels with various activities, had a robust response and a clear message: given the state of the coronavirus, you’re generally not very comfortable at all.
The Phillies ended their season losing eight of the final nine games and couldn’t even make an expanded version of the playoffs. The Eagles salvaged a tie against the lowly Bengals to start the season 0-2-1. Only the soccer-playing Union, with a strong start to their campaign, have provided hope to the local fans. And that success is reflected in the results of our survey.
Sparked by Jon Cohen’s article about the spirits in his house, and in anticipation of the upcoming Halloween season, the Swarthmorean’s latest Unscientific Survey probed your beliefs about ghosts. The results show that, on this topic at least, Swarthmoreans are completely aligned with their fellow Americans.
Big-time pollsters repeat the same question from survey to survey in order to see how opinions change over time. So with this Unscientific Survey we decided to do the same. Back in April, we asked readers, first, how long they predicted it would be till the pandemic-influenced changes receded and things returned to a state of relative normalcy, and, second, once that did happen, how life would be compared to before the virus hit.
Disruptions to vacation travel certainly aren’t the most momentous or profound changes wrought by the pandemic, but they’re one of the more insidious ways our sense of normalcy has been chipped away at. We are lucky enough to live in a town (a phrase that I seem to be uttering more and more) where, at least according to our latest survey, 100% of the people usually go away on vacation in the summer. This year, that’s down to 64% (with 8% still not sure).
It probably shouldn’t be surprising that in Swarthmore, tradition is a trump card. In voting for Swarthmore’s favorite tree, readers went with history, giving a plurality (28%) to the venerable white oak tree on the property of Drew and Nancy Forbes at 504 Walnut Lane. If you still haven’t seen it, the best view is from Hillborn Avenue.
I took special note of two (anonymous) comments to our latest survey, “How Long Do You Have to Have Lived in Swarthmore to Be Considered a Real Swarthmorean?” One person said, “I believe you are welcomed as a Swarthmorean as soon as you live here. However, there is a second milestone when neighbors start referring to your house with your last name not the previous owner’s. This can sometimes take 10 years!”
Anyone who has driven into town has surely noticed the sign declaring that Swarthmore is “Tree City USA.” Naïvely, I always assumed we were THE Tree City, but it turns out that there are more than 3,400 of them across the country, and 115 in Pennsylvania, that have met the exacting standards of the Arbor Day Foundation. We’ve decided to poll our readers to select Swarthmore’s Favorite Tree, as nominated by a panel of experts. We urge you to see as many of the candidate trees as you can before voting.
For this survey, we took a look at some of the issues of the past decades that filled the Letters to the Editor section of the Swarthmorean with the most passion and words. The survey showed consensus or near consensus on the most recent bones of contention.
Respondents to our most recent survey, about Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick, were internally divided.
We, collectively, are very lucky. The majority of Swarthmorean readers live in a beautiful town with plenty of space, and do not want for material things. And that’s reflected in the results of our latest survey, in which you were asked how you are doing, on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best).
We are in this for the long haul. That, at least, is the general opinion of Swarthmorean readers. In Unscientific Survey No. 6, we asked how long you thought it would take before things returned to relative normal. Among those who responded, 73% thought it would take at least a year, and almost half of that group predicted 18 months or more.
Last week we asked for your recommendations on great ways to fill some of the expanses of time many of us seem to have looming in front of us. We’ve assembled some of the responses: the recommendation itself and, for context, how the recommender completed the sentence “You’ll like it if you like…”
What’s that old Petula Clark song? “When you’re alone and life is making you weary, you can always go…” To the ’Ville! At least that’s the way it’s sung in Swarthmore, where a plurality of respondents to Unscientific Survey No. 4 reported using that name for the central part of town.