And now for something lighter: Cookie Monster blows away #2 Oscar as a Hunch favorite

We’ve enjoyed analyzing Hunch’s data recently and creating reports which summarize some of the insights we’ve found.  We have a lot more of these planned.

For today, we thought we’d lighten things up a bit and and just have some fun.  We looked at results for a THAY question about “Who’s your favorite Sesame Street Character?” and also checked out the correlations of results in the “Which muppet am I?” topic.  If you haven’t seen them yet, these correlation reports appear on every single result page on Hunch (as long as you’re signed in).   Just mouse over the ‘Actions’ menu to the right of the result name and choose the ‘Correlations‘ menu option.

More than 79,000 Hunch users have answered the following Teach Hunch About You question:

Here’s how things stack up:

Who would have guessed that Cookie Monster would take such a commanding lead, blowing away his next closest rival Oscar the Grouch by a 9 percentage point lead?  (Our counsel to Cookie would be to negotiate hard on his contract renewal next year since apparently he’s carrying the show.)  In fact, judging from the enthusiastic pros/cons for Cookie left by Hunch users, the guy would probably win a seat in congress if he ran in the near future.

We were also surprised that Ernie is favored 2:1 to Bert.  At first we thought it might have something to do with those rumors and innuendos that swirled about Bert’s ‘private life‘ for awhile.  But then we cross-tabbed Bert’s popularity with the minority of Hunch users who are absolutely against gays in the military, and you know what?  They actually like Bert more than Hunchers overall (6% vs. 4%).

As far as how each of the above characters correlates with some other THAYs and results on Hunch, here’s what we learned:

Cookie Monster fans: Have never been on a cruise, tend to believe in life after death, think of themselves as “foodies”, live with one other person in their household, and loved the movie Napoleon Dynamite.

Oscar the Grouch fans: Don’t really think about matching the color of their belt with their shoes, tend to have a very casual, almost student-looking living room, drive a truck/suv, don’t belong to a health club, and don’t make their bed every day.

Grover fans: Would like to live in a modern loft with cement floors, would rather be “obese and wealthy” than “healthy and poor”, have never ridden in a helicopter (but would like to sometime) and like to hike.

Ernie fans: Are concerned with the environment and feel that people often misunderstand them.  They don’t like roller coasters but they do have a CD of a Broadway musical at home.  They also don’t floss their teeth.

Count von Count fans: Believe in legalizing marijuana and enjoy awards shows like the Oscars “once in awhile”, yet care “not in the least” who will play in the next World Cup.  They live with other adults (but not a spouse/partner) and enjoy “bistro-type” french fries.

Snuffleupagus fans: Tended to have a big wheel as a kid.  They often doodle, are nostalgic for the days when they could eat “Cheeze in a can”, and can roll their tongues.  But they tend to have never had a passport.

Big Bird fans: Are concerned about homelessness, perform “very well” on standardized tests and are confident “pushing back on authority” when they think it’s appropriate. They skew female and tend to be musically inclined.

Bert fans: Tend to be “great at catching fly balls”.  They don’t drink margaritas and don’t use videochat, but do favor intellectually challenging jobs.  They buy their books online and tend to be single.

Zoe fans: Skew heavily female.  It’s more natural for them to be “nice” rather than “fair” to others.  They are close to nature and like to be “in tune with those around them”.  They aspire to “give back” in life and like “helping the team succeed”.

Ok, that was fun.  Now we’ll get back to some real work.