this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
21 points (95.7% liked)

Ask Science

8633 readers
5 users here now

Ask a science question, get a science answer.


Community Rules


Rule 1: Be respectful and inclusive.Treat others with respect, and maintain a positive atmosphere.


Rule 2: No harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or trolling.Avoid any form of harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or offensive behavior.


Rule 3: Engage in constructive discussions.Contribute to meaningful and constructive discussions that enhance scientific understanding.


Rule 4: No AI-generated answers.Strictly prohibit the use of AI-generated answers. Providing answers generated by AI systems is not allowed and may result in a ban.


Rule 5: Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.Adhere to community guidelines and comply with instructions given by moderators.


Rule 6: Use appropriate language and tone.Communicate using suitable language and maintain a professional and respectful tone.


Rule 7: Report violations.Report any violations of the community rules to the moderators for appropriate action.


Rule 8: Foster a continuous learning environment.Encourage a continuous learning environment where members can share knowledge and engage in scientific discussions.


Rule 9: Source required for answers.Provide credible sources for answers. Failure to include a source may result in the removal of the answer to ensure information reliability.


By adhering to these rules, we create a welcoming and informative environment where science-related questions receive accurate and credible answers. Thank you for your cooperation in making the Ask Science community a valuable resource for scientific knowledge.

We retain the discretion to modify the rules as we deem necessary.


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I let people rate how much they like different things on a scale of 1-10. How do I actually tell if people like one thing more than another thing if the sample sizes are different? This is not about any real scientific study, more like a personal test :)

For example, if one thing got voted on 10 times and has an average value of 6.5, and another thing got voted on 6 times and has a 6.1, is the 6.5 thing actually more liked? Or is this small sample size still so random that it could with a high chance go both ways?

I've never done anything like this, if someone could explain it or direct me to the correct key words/links, that would be hugely appreciated :)

I've read up a bit on p-value determination, but I'm not sure what my "null hypothesis" is here actually, numerically. If I'd put it in words I guess my hypothesis would be "this thing is more liked than the other thing", but honestly, it seems like my specific case would be much simpler than all the stuff I'm reading here :D

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TauZero@mander.xyz 5 points 1 year ago

Your situation reminded me of the way IMDB sorts movies by rating, even though different movies may receive vastly different total number of votes. They use something called a credibility formula which is apparently a Bayesian statistics way of doing it, unlike the frequentist statistics with p-values and null hypotheses that you are looking for atm.