Remember this post about Pirates vs. Ninjas? Well, here are the results. I've had a couple more people respond since I've run this report, but the overall result would not have been any different. Here's the report for Captain Jack Sparrow:
Dear Captain Jack Sparrow,
Here are the results of the survey that you requested:
We gathered data from 27 participants who found the survey primarily through Facebook or my personal blog.
We started off the survey by asking which group they thought was cooler, Pirates or Ninjas, just to see where exactly your group stood.Based on the chart above created with the survey data, your “coolness” rating is still much higher than the Ninjas despite their efforts to dethrone your group. The major reasons that our respondents gave as to why you were so much cooler included things like your “swagger,” “clothing” including “eye patch and sword,” and your choice of “language.” The main reason that people gave for Ninjas being cooler was their “sneakiness” and “stealth.”
This chart shows that half of people who voted Ninjas cooler have always considered Ninjas cooler. This means that there isn’t a huge population of people who changed their opinion once the Ninja fad started.
Those who did say that they changed their opinions were for various miscellaneous reasons such as Ninja’s “masks and moves” but there was no major theme that accompanied the reasons.
This next graph is most helpful in figuring out how Pirates stack up against Ninjas. The respondents were asked whether the categories on the X axis were important in determining coolness level. The categories were then ordered on the chart with the category furthest to the left receiving the highest number of votes that it was important in determining coolness and the category of the right receiving the least number of votes of being important in determining coolness. The bars indicate how many votes each group got for being better than the other group in a given category.
Fortunately, in the categories that are ranked higher in importance the Pirates received the majority of the votes. In the “dialect” category Pirates completely sweep the board. But by looking at the chart it is easy to see that Ninjas outrank Pirates in “more likely to win in a fight” and “type of weapons.” By focusing on improving in these two categories you’re popularity will probably rise.
We also asked the respondents in an open ended question to suggest ways for how Pirates could increase their coolness level. The most common response dealt with hygiene practices such as “bathe more often,” “shower,” “change clothes every once and a while,” and “brush teeth.” Nine out of the twenty-five that answered this question had something to say about the hygiene habits of Pirates. Jack, if you teach your people how to shower and have a more kempt appearance their coolness level would probably rise.
Our final question on the survey asked the respondent which group they would join if they had the choice. The results were interesting.
Despite the fact that Pirates were voted coolest by a large percentage, more people would rather join the Ninjas and a substantial amount wouldn’t join either group than join with the Pirates. My best explanation for this discrepancy is the fact that the people who took this survey generally shower more often and live in cleaner environments than what the Pirate life currently provides. As suggested earlier, if you can help educate your people about cleanliness than you chances of having a greater following will increase!
I hope that the results from this survey are helpful in helping you know where Pirates stand on the “cool” ladder and in what areas they could improve on to increase their coolness level.
