Analysis of the last page

A sample of death notices from the New Zealand Herald was used as the basis of a Data Analysis assignment. This note explores some interesting statistical aspects of these death notices, using common data analysis techniques, and illustrates how they can be used as a resource for teaching. In particular they provide a clear example of biased sampling, a concept that is usually hard to quantify

A teaching note on Cook's distance - a guideline

Cook’s Distance (Di) is used for assessing influence in regression models. The usual criterion is that a point is influential if Di exceeds the median of the Fp,n-p distribution, where p is the number of regression parameters. The practice developed here at Massey Albany is to teach the guideline Di>0.7 for p=2, Di> 0.8 for p=3, Di> 0.85 for p>3, where n≥15. It is not known if this guideline is used elsewhere

Religious Switchers: Data on Religious Change in New Zealand

The religious demography of Western societies is rapidly changing, especially as people who formerly said they belonged to a religion now say they have no religion. Using survey data from New Zealand, the relationship between religious affiliation, personal religiosity, and attendance at services was explored. It was found that choosing ‘No Religion’ as a label does not equate to having no religious beliefs. Panel data was used to examine how respondents change their religious affiliation. After three years 6% of formerly affiliated respondents answered ‘No Religion’, while 15% of formerly non-religious indicated a religion: However the first group was bigger, which meant a net decrease in affiliation overall. Demographic factors related to these changes were examined. A second survey quantified the extent of religious switching between churches in New Zealand

Campaign Finance Regulation and the Marketplace of Emotions

This essay examines the validity, in light of new empirical research, of the free speech theory the U.S. Supreme Court uses to justify the doctrines it currently employs to assess the constitutionality of campaign finance regulations. The Court’s model, which Professor McDonald terms the theory of \u27stimulated democratic deliberation,\u27 assumes that an unlimited quantity of campaign-related communications will result in increased public deliberation about ideas and better informed citizens, which in turn will result in better decisions about candidates for political office. In short, this model assumes that rational thought and deliberation about important issues of the day drive voter decision-making. McDonald examines new research by neuroscientists, political psychologists and political scientists which suggests that this model is neither an accurate description of the nature of campaign-related communications nor their affect on average voters. These studies conclude that human emotion, and not reason, plays the dominant role in voter decision-making, and that political strategists are increasingly taking advantage of such findings to target and manipulate voter decisions with emotional appeals contained in political advertising. McDonald argues that the Court should update its theoretical model to more accurately reflect these realities, which in turn would warrant doctrinal modifications to give the government greater constitutional latitude to impose reasonable campaign finance regulations