In the previous post, I looked at whether it’s possible to code the answers to open-ended survey questions in such a way as to flag respondents who perhaps weren’t taking the survey seriously. My primary concerns were whether these outbursts of respondent hostility can affect our inferences, but also whether we can use characteristics of respondents or of particular questions to predict when these outbursts will occur. I think looking at these hostile responses is an important reminder of just how many different stories there are within a single survey. If social scientists want to generalise about these stories, then I think we ought to acknowledge that some individuals in our dataset don’t want to be generalised about. Frustration is one way to gauge this.
Identifying Cities with the Safest Drivers
In May 2013 Allstate released its “America’s Best Drivers Report“, which identifies cities with residents who have the longest years between accidents. Boise is #2 on the list, so it caught my attention. The data are based on Allstate insurance claims from January 2010 to December 2011. Although the report is interesting, I think the … Read more