Study: Seeing the US Flag Makes You Vote Republican

[Just_A_Guy]

Bwahahahaha! Our evil plan is working.

[FunkyTown]

I'm... Uncertain how this could possibly be proven. A small flag in the upper corner of a page shifted their voting preferences.

Wouldn't the 'control' group have been exposed to a flag at least once in the eight months after the experiment? 'Cause I've been to Chicago and there are a lot of places downtown that sport the flag. I'm not going to say this study was affected by confirmation bias, but... Well... Actually, that's exactly what I'm saying. I can't imagine how they can have a control group in such an experiment.

[MarginOfError]

By my calculations, this study had enough participants the correctly detect a true difference between groups 47% of the time. I won't get into all of the other sources of variability that were probably missed.

[FunkyTown]

By my calculations, this study had enough participants the correctly detect a true difference between groups 47% of the time. I won't get into all of the other sources of variability that were probably missed.

When one random group of numbers is thrown at us in an attempt to prove something, the best answer is more random numbers!

[MarginOfError]

When one random group of numbers is thrown at us in an attempt to prove something, the best answer is more random numbers!

I submit the following to demonstrate statistical significance

[1] -0.312873886 0.285428933 0.327381955 -1.186092035 1.272013217 -1.560761853 2.108086594 -0.332896617 -0.164125507

[10] 0.505688089 1.112936131 0.128059815 -0.558287241 0.219765585 0.678013523 -0.069588402 1.764388087 -1.360816871

[19] 1.293332666 -0.028320895 -0.183838763 -0.589447160 -1.109197741 1.155185984 -0.735267925 -1.415611230 0.606980641

[28] 1.322202429 -0.219660943 -0.331666180 0.728631093 1.148095519 -0.367443964 1.623049844 1.218509438 1.907528411

[37] -0.556146308 1.613419490 0.719872483 -1.175527766 0.784473194 0.798735900 -2.033202935 0.412611748 0.748223082

[46] 0.052695346 0.466845138 0.058383342 -0.088917462 -0.723185907 0.897361040 -0.529434566 1.516410172 0.983408426

[55] -1.231590367 1.122293963 1.797780249 0.789388730 0.370797579 -1.087676587 -0.384497623 0.797579387 -0.278567013

[64] -0.670052830 1.082275464 -0.269505714 0.656415308 -0.545429642 0.190616349 -0.609637067 0.161035256 0.265540910

[73] 0.665093654 -1.462780978 -0.063042233 1.363014229 -0.336530854 -0.748146957 -1.463868888 -1.407660210 0.514430123

[82] 0.928250657 0.966465195 -1.464034356 0.095621512 0.107773723 -1.172587369 0.131798185 -0.060321687 0.979971895

[91] -0.504429369 0.354363548 -1.226319888 -0.312583641 -0.007508654 -1.368256143 -0.340493250 -1.104169412 0.725206192

[100] 0.961556768 0.278540492 2.251972369 -0.444819244 -1.057588940 2.627838491 -0.038429514 1.157292443 -0.807231799

[109] -0.164193811 -0.001206387 0.238777063 -0.130195410 -0.311868918 0.963263686 -2.115303802 -1.972575748 1.191266425

[118] -0.852171744 1.589347526 0.777650051 -0.277867843 2.859638011 -0.288693951 -0.757894742 0.720336589 1.830177176

[127] 1.064738574 -2.355763896 -0.695481541 0.554316698 -0.248420935 0.538684120 0.241250261 0.707204545 -0.655416873

[136] 2.372679502 1.000453099 0.055129360 -0.415395203 -0.543601907 0.698377649 -0.175404792 0.239726087 0.238750927

[145] -0.960482779 0.879390970 -0.494483168 -0.330151640 -0.572630441 1.279168042 0.283034004 -0.794350692 -1.671649180

[154] 2.072792834 0.007108793 -0.986292498 -0.484646072 0.338135020 0.363268343 -0.383998114 0.227160806 0.213650862

[163] 0.179921271 -0.888461065 0.374953231 1.131228102 -0.041180874 -0.815842006 -1.223078043 -1.586649085 2.996240452

[172] 1.780950039 -0.174309972 -0.204226288 -0.690659079 0.166333453 0.243689165 -0.516684510 -1.334640574 -1.579148307

[181] 1.220301187 -0.590936661 1.146940554 1.274976183 0.026035527 0.850344094 0.251346007 0.055114158 -0.439418165

[190] 1.191339338 0.209513579 -1.058254694 -0.567199229 -1.440056926 -2.031130084 0.812507873 1.748042101 1.053973567

[199] -1.021363968 -0.737930128 0.146501408 0.708542949 0.760581440 -0.801401880 -0.315656055 -1.988690581 -0.958250398

[208] 0.391136537 -0.665929345 -0.909878142 0.165089924 -0.101120212 0.517757381 0.190519276 0.529541307 0.952625957

[217] 1.058856757 -0.178306418 0.577361392 -0.186240537 -0.848820395 0.476970230 0.128422958 -0.147314933 -0.089687947

[226] 0.034357283 1.043224586 1.463683761 -0.011827114 1.689016986 0.296425702 -0.334566547 0.165846198 -1.840764904

[235] 0.249333207 -1.256828135 -0.512330318 -0.450182986 -0.437618462 0.463781082 2.633970943 -0.608511113 -0.497359181

[244] 1.649253491 0.328688335 1.484068005 -0.246517878 -0.351381226 0.483591816 -1.537543919 1.644659456 1.231087481

[253] -0.291894456 0.072822437 0.980103871 1.509936222 0.182366138 -1.178259979 1.373781050 0.266429108 -0.189379521

[262] 0.970576144 -0.690044505 0.541951436 -0.371916543 1.305460025 1.013521311 0.707059858 1.165079967 1.440153592

[271] 0.623901641 0.040171244 -0.287945714 0.409389152 0.168945961 1.498540260 -1.540924497 0.334469060 0.268430554

[280] 0.238064260 0.616003234 0.148743407 -1.407703103 -1.348008754 0.700868804 -1.123435176 -0.773749551 -0.188617911

[289] -1.855487766 -1.278104786 0.173496132 -0.985650996 0.311682919 2.509416288 -0.665975676 0.750965077 -1.040699443

[298] -1.116491686 -1.002407237 -0.800908053 -0.612713578 -0.353283839 -0.596634690 -1.173369145 -0.508309091 1.604556317

[LittleWyvern]

MoE, your post brings back so many bad memories...

[FunkyTown]

I can't argue with that, MOE!

[HEthePrimate]

Actually it's true. I used to be a die-hard Democrat. Then one day, I saw a U.S. flag. Looking up at Old Glory, lit from behind by the sun, it was suddenly as though the sunlight itself filled my soul, and the pure love of country, God, and freedom swelled my breast. I knew that from that point on, I could never again turn my back on America by voting Democrat, and I've voted straight-ticket Republican ever since.

[prisonchaplain]

I used to vote for the Socialist Workers Party. One day, as I entered the voting booth, I noticed the flag hanging on the wall. From that day forward, my punching of the holes shifted right.

I'm heading back towards the center though. Why? We switched to mail-in voting. This too, I suspect, is a left-wing plot. And...it's working.

[MarginOfError]

I used to vote for the Socialist Workers Party. One day, as I entered the voting booth, I noticed the flag hanging on the wall. From that day forward, my punching of the holes shifted right.

I'm heading back towards the center though. Why? We switched to mail-in voting. This too, I suspect, is a left-wing plot. And...it's working.

Start buying the stamps that have American flags on them....problem solved.

[ADoyle90815]

It hasn't worked for me, as every polling place I've been to has had an American flag in the room. I have a Democratic governor, 2 US senators who are Democrats, and Democratic legislators representing me. With the new gerrymandering that was done, we'll probably lose the Republican congress representative, as my area was part of a district that had very conservative Orange County. My area has also had a majority vote for the Democratic nominee for President, not just Obama.

Edited July 26, 2011 by ADoyle90815

[Dravin]

I used to vote for the Socialist Workers Party. One day, as I entered the voting booth, I noticed the flag hanging on the wall. From that day forward, my punching of the holes shifted right.

I'm heading back towards the center though. Why? We switched to mail-in voting. This too, I suspect, is a left-wing plot. And...it's working.

I've got your back PC.

[dahlia]

I used to vote for the Socialist Workers Party.

Yeah? Me too. Even worked on one of their presidential campaigns. Then I realized that all these white college kids were complaining about their middle class lives while my step-father had come from poor, immigrant (Caribbean) parents, served his country and used the GI bill to go to college and law school.

It was the first step to the realization that libs like to cry about situations instead of doing something themselves about the problem.