Spelling Bees

James W. Boudreau; Jeremy Kettering; Shane D. Sanders

doi:10.1177/00027642241237929

Spelling Bees

James W. Boudreau, Jeremy Kettering, Shane D. Sanders

Department of Sport Management

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In this note, we consider a form of competition in which two contestants face separate sequences of independent trials. The contestant with the longer sequence of successful trials wins. However, since the trials are independent, there may be a form of paradox whereby the loser is able to pass all of the trials in the winner’s sequence, whereas the winner could not have overcome two or more trials in the loser’s sequence. We refer to this as the spelling bee paradox and explore its likelihood in simple settings. JEL Classification Codes: C46, D74, Z29.

Original language	English (US)
Journal	American Behavioral Scientist
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241237929
State	Accepted/In press - 2024

Keywords

nonparametric statistics
social choice aggregation
social choice violations
Wald-Wolfowitz runs test
Yule-Simpson aggregation paradox

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Cultural Studies
Education
Sociology and Political Science
General Social Sciences

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10.1177/00027642241237929

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title = "Spelling Bees",

abstract = "In this note, we consider a form of competition in which two contestants face separate sequences of independent trials. The contestant with the longer sequence of successful trials wins. However, since the trials are independent, there may be a form of paradox whereby the loser is able to pass all of the trials in the winner{\textquoteright}s sequence, whereas the winner could not have overcome two or more trials in the loser{\textquoteright}s sequence. We refer to this as the spelling bee paradox and explore its likelihood in simple settings. JEL Classification Codes: C46, D74, Z29.",

keywords = "nonparametric statistics, social choice aggregation, social choice violations, Wald-Wolfowitz runs test, Yule-Simpson aggregation paradox",

author = "Boudreau, {James W.} and Jeremy Kettering and Sanders, {Shane D.}",

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year = "2024",

doi = "10.1177/00027642241237929",

language = "English (US)",

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AU - Kettering, Jeremy

AU - Sanders, Shane D.

PY - 2024

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N2 - In this note, we consider a form of competition in which two contestants face separate sequences of independent trials. The contestant with the longer sequence of successful trials wins. However, since the trials are independent, there may be a form of paradox whereby the loser is able to pass all of the trials in the winner’s sequence, whereas the winner could not have overcome two or more trials in the loser’s sequence. We refer to this as the spelling bee paradox and explore its likelihood in simple settings. JEL Classification Codes: C46, D74, Z29.

AB - In this note, we consider a form of competition in which two contestants face separate sequences of independent trials. The contestant with the longer sequence of successful trials wins. However, since the trials are independent, there may be a form of paradox whereby the loser is able to pass all of the trials in the winner’s sequence, whereas the winner could not have overcome two or more trials in the loser’s sequence. We refer to this as the spelling bee paradox and explore its likelihood in simple settings. JEL Classification Codes: C46, D74, Z29.

KW - nonparametric statistics

KW - social choice aggregation

KW - social choice violations

KW - Wald-Wolfowitz runs test

KW - Yule-Simpson aggregation paradox

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ER -

Spelling Bees

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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