Survey results, reddit edition

G'day, /r/samplesize!

I'm Rocky. About six months ago I posted a couple of links to a survey about writing styles in science, to collect data for my Masters dissertation. You were a massive help - I got all the data I needed within my timeframe. So first of all, thank you!

I know you like to hear about the results of the surveys posted here, so I'd like to share exactly what it was you helped with.

The specific writing style we were looking at is called anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is a weird thing our brains do when something looks or acts human: we start to treat it like it actually is human. Scientists get uptight about this because it's not super scientific, but there's also some suggestion that it makes things easier to understand and more fun to read. My research was putting these arguments to the test.

Some of you would've read a blog post about a plant in space. Some of you would've read a blog post by a plant in space. One anthropomorphic, one not. Then, you would've been asked questions to test your knowledge and figure out how you felt.

What Reddit thinks about space plants

You can read my general results here, if you're interested. Generally, it looks like reading about science makes you way better at answering questions about science, but whether you're treating your subject like it's a person or not doesn't make much of a difference.

This page, though, has some reddit-specific stuff, which I ran just for fun.

Of my 174 completed responses, 52 came from reddit. Using /r/samplesize got me a lot of data, but it also had the highest non-completion rate of any of my recruitment channels.

You're a pretty well-educated bunch. Most of the folks who chose to answer my survey either had a college degree or were working on one. We also have a lot of scientists and educators hanging around - not surprising for a sub where people take surveys for fun, but still interesting to know.

Despite being so learned, you actually performed slightly worse than participants I recruited elsewhere. You got fewer questions right (out of seven), and more likely to give answers like 'I don't know' or 'It just does'. You slackers. ;)

And you're a grumpy bunch too - or maybe just a bit more skeptical and a bit less credulous than those twitter folk. Whatever the reason, you enjoyed yourselves almost a full rank less than the other social networks.

On the upside? A redditor was responsible possibly my favourite response in the entire dataset: this glorious meditation on the role of gravity in plant growth:

I imagine larger plants might actually benefit from a lack of gravity - imagine a pumpkin that didn't dangle down, threatening to snap off the vine, but simply...floated serenely.

Thanks again for participating, everyone. If you're interested, check out my full results (or if you're feeling really brave, my entire unedited dissertation) and if you've got any questions, drop me a question in the comments for this post or pm me - I'm /u/rockym93.