I just came across this in watching an enjoyable LISA presentation by Elizabeth Zwicky. At http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4rrhbs-eA0#

I just came across this in watching an enjoyable LISA presentation by Elizabeth Zwicky. At http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4rrhbs-eA0#t=4993 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4r... is a story about customer feedback for a company which has, broadly speaking, engineers and admins. Quoting from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4rrhbs-eA0#t=5073 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4r...: "Engineers do not give out 5s. If you tell an engineer that the possible rating scale is 1 to 5 and they like you, they give you a 4. Because tomorrow they might love you and then they would give you a 5. They probably won't, but they might, so they give you a 4 so that they have room. We all are totally okay with this. But the world is also full of this other class of people who if they like you give you a 5. They're quite consistent about it. 'I like you. I see nothing wrong with that. I'm giving you a 5.'" The graph (with, admittedly, artificial data meant to portray an example) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4rrhbs-eA0#t=5157 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4r... shows it most clearly, with the satisfaction numbers from engineering clearly trending down. Apparently, engineers don't like to fill out forms, while admins do, so satisfaction survey results also have a sample bias in favor of the 5s of admin staff.