Re: fairness

[Seiji S.C. Steimetz]

[ Not true.  If the audience is randomly distributed, then even a sequential selection of questioners gives everyone an equal chance of being chosen. ]   Actually, this is one of the *only* ways that draws from the audience could be purely random.  If the audience is randomly distributed then selecting the first questioner would be analogous to seeding a random number generator.  As mentioned before, the speaker never behaves this way and audiences are never randomly distributed so audience members never have equal chances of being selected.  Generally, I think the speaker's notion of fairness is calling on those with the greatest desire to ask questions.  She takes repeated observations of the signals sent by questioners (who's had their hand up the longest, who's shaking their hand vigorously, who holds their hand up even while questions are being answered, etc.).  Paying attention to the entire room indicates that she's monitoring all of the signals in the room (thereby allocating answers efficiently on the basis of "willingness to ask"?).   Seiji __________________________________________________ Seiji Steimetz                                             Office: SST 311 Dept. of Economics                                      (949) 824-1390 University of California, Irvine 3151 Social Science Plaza                      [EMAIL PROTECTED] Irvine, CA 92612                        www.ags.uci.edu/~ssteimet   "We dance round in a ring and suppose, But the Secret sits in the middle and knows." - Robert Frost __________________________________________________ ----- Original Message ----- From: John A. Viator To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 2:27 PM Subject: Re: fairness >On Fri, 8 Dec 2000, John A. Viator wrote: > >>     When conducting question and answer sessions for large audiences, >>  why do speakers often try to distribute their attention (pick >>  questioners) randomly? > >If one chooses questioners according to location or in some ordered >sequence, it is not purely random, and it is therefore perceived as >biased. >Fred Foldvary Not true.  If the audience is randomly distributed, then even a sequential selection of questioners gives everyone an equal chance of being chosen.  I admit that it would appear biased, which is important to the audience, but from a purely rational viewpoint, is it helpful to choose from different parts of the audience? John -- John A. Viator, Ph.D. Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinlic 1002 Health Sciences Road East University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92612 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 949-824-3754 Fax:  949-824-8413