Extra exercises for Chapter 4
Exercise 1: Measuring loneliness without talking to anyone
In December 2008, the BBC published a news story on their website titled “life in the UK has become lonelier”. The article was based on research conducted by academics at the University of Sheffield. The researchers had used data from the 1971 and 2001 National Censuses to compute a measure of loneliness (defined as a “feeling of not belonging”) for the UK as a whole and for individual geographical areas.
The measure of loneliness was calculated for each area by adding up the following numbers:
· The number of non-married adults
· The number of one-person households
· The number of people who had moved to their current address within the last year
· The number of people who rented rather than owned their home
Each of these numbers was given a different ‘weight’ in the calculation of the final number. The number of people renting their homes had the most influence on the final number, followed by the number of one-person households, followed by the number of people who had recently moved. The number of non-married adults had the least influence.
Areas with a higher final score were described as being ‘lonelier’.
To what extend do you think that this number is a good measure of ‘loneliness’?
Exercise 2: Measuring atheism in a survey
You are an independent statistician. You are asked by an Australian atheism advocacy organisation to analyse data from a government-backed survey of social attitudes. The survey is carried out every year and includes the following question on religious affiliation:
Which religion or denomination do you consider yourself as belonging to?
1. Christian – Anglican
2. Christian – Roman Catholic
3. Christian – Other Christian
4. Islam
5. Hinduism
6. Sikhism
7. Judaism
8. Buddhism
9. Other religion
10. No religion
You find that over the last 30 years, the proportion of respondents picking ‘no religion’ rose from 15% to 30%.
The advocacy organisation wants to publicise your results using a press-release. The release will be headed: “Australia is losing its religion: Survey shows that 30% of Australians are now atheists.”
Is this a reasonable interpretation of your findings? If not, why not?
