I know “male, female, FTM, MTF, other” is a standard gender/sex question, but I don’t know why.
Yeah, that confused me too. What’s the point of asking that question in the first place ? Just to collect more features for some clustering model, or what ? Then why not ask people’s age or weight or hair color, as well ?
Then why not ask people’s age or weight or hair color, as well ?
More people on LW care about the gender of LW participants than care about the weight or hair color of LW participants. As I recall, the survey did ask for age.
Yes, the ‘race’ question was particularly weird since it did not have reference to the country of origin. Normally, surveys conducted in different countries have very different breakdowns of what ‘race’ is supposed to mean.
At least it had both the British and American versions of “Asian”.
Yeah, I don’t think many people outside North America would break up White into Hispanic and non-Hispanic. (At least, it didn’t say “Latino”—I didn’t find out what it’s supposed to mean until recently, and as a result, being Italian, I had classed myself as a Latino a few times.)
The US Census Bureau uses this odd system for historical/political reasons. I don’t think it reflects very much how Americans categorize the world. I don’t know why Yvain used it, I don’t think he’s even American.
Yeah, that confused me too. What’s the point of asking that question in the first place ? Just to collect more features for some clustering model, or what ? Then why not ask people’s age or weight or hair color, as well ?
More people on LW care about the gender of LW participants than care about the weight or hair color of LW participants. As I recall, the survey did ask for age.
As for me, I was surprised it asked about my racial background and my family’s religion but not what country I grew up in or live in.
Yes, the ‘race’ question was particularly weird since it did not have reference to the country of origin. Normally, surveys conducted in different countries have very different breakdowns of what ‘race’ is supposed to mean.
At least it had both the British and American versions of “Asian”.
Yeah, I don’t think many people outside North America would break up White into Hispanic and non-Hispanic. (At least, it didn’t say “Latino”—I didn’t find out what it’s supposed to mean until recently, and as a result, being Italian, I had classed myself as a Latino a few times.)
The survey says a lot about how Americans categorize the world. It might be more informational than the results.
The US Census Bureau uses this odd system for historical/political reasons. I don’t think it reflects very much how Americans categorize the world. I don’t know why Yvain used it, I don’t think he’s even American.