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> Alfred Taubman, who owned A&W at the time, wrote about the confusion in his book Threshold Resistance: This seems like one of those things that sounds like i

> Alfred Taubman, who owned A&W at the time, wrote about the confusion in his book Threshold Resistance: This seems like one of those things that sounds like it is true but is just too convenient. It is really convenient to put out a story about how Americans are bad at fractions. In addition, the story originally came from a book the guy that owned A&W wrote. Thus he would have incentive both to create a good story and to deflect blame from himself to American stupidity. Finally, Americans use the imperial system with cups, etc and there are always a ton of fractions like 1/3, 1/4 in recipes. I bet most American households have measuring cups of 1/3 and 1/4 cup in size and surely know that the 1/3 cup is bigger than the 1/4 cup. For me this story just seems to good to be true and I would take it with a huge (1/3 pound) grain of salt.

toyg 5y ago
> I bet most American households have measuring cups You are betting that most Americans cook often and cook using written recipes. That's a very bold assumption. I expect most people who cook a lot just know "how much is enough", and people who don't cook a lot, well, they just don't cook much if at all. This is compounded by the story being about customers of fast-food joints, who likely fall disproportionately in the "don't cook at all" camp.
- sixothree 5y ago
  Sounds like you’re extrapolating his argument. He said most Americans have measuring cups. I would agree with this to be true. How many people have you met that don’t have measuring cups? This article is a distraction from what really happened here - insanely bad marketing. Third pounder is a terrible name for a burger. It’s derivative and implies gluttony.
  - horsawlarway 5y ago
    Even outside of the marketing - In the US A&W is essentially considered off-brand fast food. They're already starting from the position of bad branding, and then using an absolutely terrible name for a burger.
  - toyg 5y ago
    > How many people have you met that don’t have measuring cups? I have measuring cups. Do I actually ever use them? No. Would that make me unfamiliar with their size, if I weren't decent at math? Probably.
- ghaff 5y ago
  >I expect most people who cook a lot just know "how much is enough", It depends on what one is making of course, but most people who cook (and, especially, bake) a lot absolutely measure things.
  - toast0 5y ago
    Baking often requires decent precision, but stovetop cooking is more foregiving with ingredient mixes, especially if you taste as you go. Some parts of baking are kind of like that too, sometimes you know when you've added enough flour because of how the dough changes and that may not be a specific amount, and you'll know when you've done enough mixing or beating when things change, not by a specific duration, but other items you do need to be specific.
jsight 5y ago
Yeah, especially since the study wasn't even seeking to determine a size comparison. It sounds like they took some random anecdotes from respondents and read the wrong things into them. If you wanted to find out the actual incidence of this confusion, you'd want a test structured in a really different way from this.

toyg 5y ago

> I bet most American households have measuring cups You are betting that most Americans cook often and cook using written recipes. That's a very bold assumption. I expect most people who cook a lot just know "how much is enough", and people who don't cook a lot, well, they just don't cook much if at all. This is compounded by the story being about customers of fast-food joints, who likely fall disproportionately in the "don't cook at all" camp.

sixothree 5y ago
Sounds like you’re extrapolating his argument. He said most Americans have measuring cups. I would agree with this to be true. How many people have you met that don’t have measuring cups? This article is a distraction from what really happened here - insanely bad marketing. Third pounder is a terrible name for a burger. It’s derivative and implies gluttony.
- horsawlarway 5y ago
  Even outside of the marketing - In the US A&W is essentially considered off-brand fast food. They're already starting from the position of bad branding, and then using an absolutely terrible name for a burger.
- toyg 5y ago
  > How many people have you met that don’t have measuring cups? I have measuring cups. Do I actually ever use them? No. Would that make me unfamiliar with their size, if I weren't decent at math? Probably.
ghaff 5y ago
>I expect most people who cook a lot just know "how much is enough", It depends on what one is making of course, but most people who cook (and, especially, bake) a lot absolutely measure things.
- toast0 5y ago
  Baking often requires decent precision, but stovetop cooking is more foregiving with ingredient mixes, especially if you taste as you go. Some parts of baking are kind of like that too, sometimes you know when you've added enough flour because of how the dough changes and that may not be a specific amount, and you'll know when you've done enough mixing or beating when things change, not by a specific duration, but other items you do need to be specific.

jsight 5y ago

Yeah, especially since the study wasn't even seeking to determine a size comparison. It sounds like they took some random anecdotes from respondents and read the wrong things into them. If you wanted to find out the actual incidence of this confusion, you'd want a test structured in a really different way from this.