What is your favourite number?

We all have favourites.  From places to meals, having favourite is an unconscious part of our existence.  Can we ask ourselves, why do i like the things that i like?  Our seemingly innocuous actions such as choosing a random number have a huge significance that we might not be aware of.  For instance, it is used in psychology and psychiatry for a number of diagnosis. If you are asked to choose a number between 1 and 10, what will be your choice?  What does this choice say about you?  What factors will likely affect your choice - religion, age, gender, intelligence, or mood?  

If a group of randomly selected individuals are asked to pick a random number between 1 and 10, what do you think will be the favourite number?  Why do you think it will be 7?  What factors will determine the favourite number?

Ogunjo et al (2018) examined this research questions in their new publication (read here) .  They asked over 2000 undergraduate students to pick a favourite number between 1 and 10.  The favourite number was found to be 1!  

Statistics of chosen numbers

What factors could be responsible for this?  They found that gender (either male or female), age (young or old), intelligence (performance in a quick test) did not contribute statistically to this choice of number.  However, the faculty they belong to was found to be a significant contributor.

There is still very much more to be done.  Researchers need to broaden the scope of contributing factors to include tribe, religion, political affiliation, and  mood.  Can we use the favourite numbers among a group of individuals to predict group dynamics? 

References

Ogunjo, Samuel T, Emmanuel J Dansu, Oluwagbenga Fakanye, and Ibiyinka A Fuwape. 2018. “The Possibility of Uniform Pseudo-Random Number Generation by a Group of Humans.” OSF. October 6. osf.io/ms9y3.