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MythBusters Busted?

T'ai Chi

Penultimate Amazing
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Something I put up a bit ago, posted elsewhere, thought people might find it interesting here:

http://www.statisticool.com/mythbusters.htm

In Episode 28: Is Yawning Contagious?, the MythBusters looked at the percents 29% and 25% and concluded that there is evidence for yawning being contagious and said

"Given how large our sample was, I'd say it's confirmed"

and then other MythBusters chimed in "confirmed".

A proper conclusion based on statistical analysis of their data would be that the myth remains plausible.
 
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I'd say "confirmed" is too strong a term. I believe they use the terms "confirmed" or "not confirmed" at the end of each test. For the sake of the show they sometimes rather loosely decide on one or the other I think.

I would also need to understand more about how they conducted their test. Here's the correct link to that episode...the one on your website is out of date as it seems their listings page is dynamic.

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/episode/episode_04.html

I'd say that it would be impossible to confirm that a yawn is contagious no matter the test. You could certainly find evidence for or against it though.
 
Although I agree that THEIR results aren't quite as conslusive as they suggested, there is a significant amount of scientific evidence that yawning is in fact contagious. Several studies have found this including this one:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WNP-4F662J9-1&_coverDate=02%2F15%2F2005&_alid=357351174&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=6968&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000005018&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=47004&md5=e0ed2009edbd0ff504cd5582b7ea1511.
In fact one study that the study above cites as a reference found that yawning is contagious in chimpanzees.
Due to the fact that they got this one right despite their plausible at best results (That's why God invented the research team), I'm going to let this one go, They've certainly made other mistakes over the course of the show.
 
Could it be that the title of this thread was a touch overenthusiastic?
 
The thread is titled with a question, James, not a statement. So the answer to your question is "No."

There is resounding agreement that interpreting p-value = .512 as rejecting a null hypothesis is simply not correct.
 
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T'ai Chi said:
The thread is titled with a question, James,
Click to expand...


Bolding mine.

Do you imagine that using the name "James" is somehow meaningful to other readers of this board?

I see that rather than address the claim you made, namely that the mythbusters were "busted" (yes, it's a claim via insinuation, so you get called on that, sorry to bother you), you would prefer to misstate my position, again via insinuation?

Could you please state your position on the OP clearly, including the position insinuted by the title question? Then we can proceed to examine your position.
 
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jj said:
Bolding mine.

Do you imagine that using the name "James" is somehow meaningful to other readers of this board?

I see that rather than address the claim you made, namely that the mythbusters were "busted" (yes, it's a claim via insinuation, so you get called on that, sorry to bother you), you would prefer to misstate my position, again via insinuation?

Could you please state your position on the OP clearly, including the position insinuted by the title question? Then we can proceed to examine your position.
Click to expand...

James, you're not talking about statistical issues anymore, but irrelevant minutae and semantics.

I've said all I have to say to you on these subjects.
 
I have to admit the yawning test left me yawning.

I could have set up a way better one.

My friend from college liked to play the "Yawning Game". We would usually be stuck waiting somewhere, and she would start to YAWN. Then we would see how many other people would join in. But I think th yawner has to be in the same room. IT's going to happen pretty quickly. Not 10 minutes later sitting in a room....duh....

Could it be later yawners yawned more as it was later in the day and they were more tired? Did the testing room get more warm?


Trust me, my friends yawning game was always successful! She told me she still plays it!
 
Well it worked with me , I got though about half the posts before yawning . This was due to the nature of the subject I might add not the virtues of the posts , which were as ever most interesting . Yawning is due to a lack of oxygen , isn't it ? But as I said before just reading about it started me off , so I'm bound to say I think it is contagious .
 
T'ai Chi said:
James, you're not talking about statistical issues anymore, but irrelevant minutae and semantics.

I've said all I have to say to you on these subjects.
Click to expand...

Well, then, you won't address the semantic confusions you create, I guess. I am unsurprised, I must admit.

I do admit that I find it somewhat ironic that you, who have so often resorted to semantic disputation, now wish to avoid your own loose semantics.
 
jj said:
Could it be that the title of this thread was a touch overenthusiastic?
Click to expand...
It could well be.

In high school, when I couldn't be sure if a certian person was watching me or not, I'd yawn. And more often than not he'd yawn with me.

Mythbusters is cool. :)
 
Edited to remove snarky comment.
 
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kittynh said:
I have to admit the yawning test left me yawning.

I could have set up a way better one.

My friend from college liked to play the "Yawning Game". We would usually be stuck waiting somewhere, and she would start to YAWN. Then we would see how many other people would join in. But I think th yawner has to be in the same room. IT's going to happen pretty quickly. Not 10 minutes later sitting in a room....duh....

Could it be later yawners yawned more as it was later in the day and they were more tired? Did the testing room get more warm?


Trust me, my friends yawning game was always successful! She told me she still plays it!
Click to expand...

We wasted 2/3rds of a class in high school discussing the contagion factor of yawning.

The class was "keyboarding." :)
 
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