Here are the results listed in order of average response:
(In case you don't know how to interpret box plots, the line at the bottom shows the minimum, the bottom of the red box shows the 25th percentile, the area between the red and blue box shows the median (50th percentile), the top of the blue box shows the 75th percentile, and the line at the top shows the maximum.)
Here are respondents' ages and average responses:
Observations and surprises:
I love it when responses range from 0 to 10. That happened with playing sports, doing volunteer work, reading the newspaper, and playing simulation video games.
On average, people perceived dinner with family or friends, quiet reflection/writing, and reading a non-fiction book as slightly more productive than doing the work your employer pays you to do.
I was surprised at how low the ratings were for video games, and that there was basically no difference between the perceived productivity of social games like World of Warcraft vs. non-social games like Grand Theft Auto. I wonder if people were thinking that the addictiveness of social games outweighs any social benefit, or just that the sociality in these games is not “real” enough to be valuable.
It’s not just me who seems to disagree with George Will on his assessment of the virtues of watching sports. Only fantasy video games came in lower, and, remarkably, people perceive watching romantic comedies to be more valuable.
I was shocked that people on average view reading the newspaper as considerably more productive/valuable than randomly browsing Wikipedia pages. Maybe the word “randomly” skewed the results?
Dinner with friends is about as good as dinner with family. But not dinner with strangers. Dinner with strangers is on par with housework. (I am aware that it’s a weird question because when do people have dinner with strangers except on a cruise ship? Still, I thought it was interesting.)
There is a high correlation between watching stand-up comedy and watching Academy Award-winning movies. That’s interesting since comedy and drama are typically seen as at opposite ends of the seriousness spectrum.
At least in this sample, older people place more value on dinner with family and friends, on doing housework, and on doing volunteer work, and less value on watching stand-up comedy.
This is interesting: There is a very high correlation between reading non-fiction books and reading novels, and there is a fairly high correlation between those two and reading the newspaper. And there is a pretty high negative correlation between any type of reading and quiet reflection/writing. That seems odd on both counts.
Wow, there is a high positive correlation between watching sports and watching romantic comedies. Anyone have an explanation for that? Maybe people see value in softening their macho side with a dose of Reese Witherspoon?
