My friend recently posted this fun application of the Bayes' Theorem. I enjoyed the awkwardness and overall hilarity of the conclusion of the research:
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/an-mit-underwear-expose
Basically, this blogger spent an ENORMOUS amount of time determining the color of underwear for MIT undergraduate students, ultimately attempting to make a "sorting" hat to determine if the color of underwear you to determine which dorm house you would be assigned to. Of course, as this blogger points out, it gives your a probability distribution and not a guarantee.
Overall, a fun read. It did leave me questioning whether or not we should trust any of the research. At the end of the day, you have to rely on random, voluntary responses to what underwear color people are wearing. Some of the answers that this blogger reported had me a little suspicious to the honesty of the surveyed students (fluffy underwear? What does that even mean?). So my conclusion of this was that if we are ever participating in a study, as a participant, we should also be ethically bound to follow the constraints of the study. The results of the data if reliant on both the participant and the researcher.
Anyways, enjoy the read. And also, accept the fact that we may never love stats quite as much as MIT students.
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