statistical probability derivation

[elessa]

i keep seeing this status posted on facebook.

Jane/John Doe asked Jesus how much do you love me? Jesus replied this much and stretched His arms on the cross and died. If you believe in God put this in your status. 97% of you won't put this in your status. While Jesus was on the cross, He was thinking of you! 3% of you will stand up for Him and put this in your status.

who came up with this statement using what analysis? what is the basis for the statistic cited? how was it determined that if the status is posted only 3% of friends will put it in their status?

been a day of being irked about a number of things. this is just one little item that has bugged me.

Comments

[aethyrkitten.livejournal.com]

It's the same people who make stupid shit like this up who are then the first and loudest going "OMG WHY DO PEOPLE THINK CHRISTIANS ARE STUPID/WEIRD/OBNOXIOUS/DELUDED? WHY ARE WE SOOO PERSECUTED?"

I dunno, Einstein. Could be that you and others like you are giving the calm, sane, rational Christians a really bad name by BEING stupid, weird, obnoxious, and deluded. Maybe. Just a possibility.

[neokibo.livejournal.com]

Well, that's just religulous. Jesus had no faith in statistics. Besides, there are atheists who willingly won't do it, and agnostics just don't give a rip. Factor that, Christ-stein, who assumes that EVARYBODY is a Kistian in FB. And and and and ... wait; I don't give a rip. OLOOKIT, I busted out some HTML on that mo'fo.

[donnaricci.livejournal.com]

Beth, who is this person and why do I suddenly want to hug them?

[elessa.livejournal.com]

meet a good friend of mine i met up here on LJ and now hang out with. isn't he a gem!

[buzz-overdrive.livejournal.com]

That 97%/3% thing makes its way into an awful lot of those Christian-oriented memes. It's probably designed to instill some sense of guilt. Obviously, it doesn't work.

[donnaricci.livejournal.com]

how funny I saw something like that on deviantart last night. I thought, WTF? Please, please be less than 3%...

[elessa.livejournal.com]

see mywildchild's response below. i think it a rather apt one to use when next i see one of these stupid statuses.

[appleblossom822.livejournal.com]

The thing I hate about that sort of post is-- oh hell, I hate all parts of it.

I hate the part where they insinuate that only 3% of the people on the internet deserver Jesus' love.

I hate the part where they insinuate that only 3% are real Christians.

I hate the part where they cheapen their own religion by making it into a chain email/post/status. If you are really a Christian, stop telling the world (97%) how bad it is, and stop telling your most religious friends (3%) how good they are.

Personally, I don't repost chain messages at all, no matter the content.

I also hate the "VERIFIED BY SNOPES" chain emails.

[appleblossom822.livejournal.com]

And by 'deserver' I mean deserve. :)

[elessa.livejournal.com]

yeah, i am rather disillusioned by the c/p a status postings that go around.

and with the snopes chain emails, i go check snopes because sure as not they are indeed a hoax.

[muzadi.livejournal.com]

The statistic schtick is a very common one used by memes (and I'm using the term meme here in its academic context, not its bastardized Internet chainletter context.)

Obviously the numbers are completely made up, here as in every other example of this presentation; the "3% will..." is an exercise of the exclusiveness principle - i.e., if you respond that makes you implicitly part of the 3% and a very select and special group.

It's actually a pretty effective memetic recruitment tactic.

[mywildchild.livejournal.com]

it is overused, boring and not worth a response any longer... however, the first time I saw that come across FB my comment was something along the lines of "Thank you for implying that the other 97% of the FB world is smart enough to know better!"

[elessa.livejournal.com]

i noticed another one today with the same statistics mentioned, but this time regarding autism. ~sigh

also, consider the bra meme. what kind of money could have been raised for research if every woman who posted a colour had donated $1 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation?