Slashdot Mirror
Researchers Study "Harbingers of Failure," Consumers Who Habitually Pick Losers
AmiMoJo writes: Is your favorite TV show always getting cancelled? Did you love Crystal Pepsi? Were you an early adopter of the Zune? If you answered yes to these questions, researchers say you might be a "Harbinger of Failure." In a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research, researchers identified a group of consumers whose preferences can predict products that will fail. “Certain customers systematically purchase new products that prove unsuccessful,” wrote the study authors. “Their early adoption of a new product is a strong signal that a product will fail.”
Screwed up the link to the PDF -- better link to abstract here, where you can get PDF.
Here, the above link and the chicago tribune links are horrible. Sorry about the link format! https://www.google.com/url?sa=...
Here's a link to the study in case anyone is interested. I don't have the time to go through it in detail right now myself, but perhaps someone else could pick over it.
You'd think that Slashdot editors would try to include that kind of link in the summary as if there's anything worth reading it's the source itself.
The study, available in MS-Word format in a link posted by a kindly slashdotter, contains this gem. 67% is 75th percentile? People who trust the findings of such articles are the harbingers of onslaught of stupidity.
Careful complaining about stupidity.
Less than 25% bought more than 67% flops, and 75% didn't. That makes people picking 67% flops or more the 75% percentile.