Quite a few years ago now I was inspired with a Thesis Topic for a Masters Degree. It really is just a variation on something known, so it may have been rejected. I never pursued such a degree so it never happened, but here it is.
What is “Skewing The Metrics”?
It is when an effort to measure something changes the very nature of what you are measuring by intention of that which is being measured.
It is akin to the famous double-slit experiment. The double-slit experiment demonstrates wave-particle duality, showing that entities like light and electrons behave as both waves and particles. When unobserved, these entities pass through both slits simultaneously and interfere, producing an interference pattern of bright and dark bands on a screen. However, if a detector is used to observe which slit the photon passes through, the interference pattern disappears, and it behaves like a classical particle, creating two clumps. The question arises of HOW the photon knows it is being observed, but that is a separate issue from the one I address here.
The inspiration hit me while in a check out line at Walmart. I noticed that the cashier kept hitting “subtotal”. I asked why.
She told me that she was being evaluated on “scan rate” and that the “scan rate” clock didn’t count after a subtotal. Mind you the taking of a subtotal actually slowed things down…significantly…but true scan rate was not her objective. Measured scan rate was.
Now I was in college at the time, and had the habit of playing the stand up arcade games during between class breaks. I was somewhat crippled by the accident which is noted in My Death, so I engineered significant gaps between classes when a building change was involved. During these gaps I would stop at the Student Union building in the middle of campus to kill the extra time. I would spend that time in the game room most days.
One game I played was called “Ten Yard Fight”. As the name implies, it was an American Football game. Points were added for time of “possession”, which is interesting as that concept is different from the actual game of Football. I found that if I did something totally illogical in actual game I could make more points. When going for the extra point after a touchdown, I would run the ball the wrong way…slowly…and actually do the kick from the opposite end of the field. It would be “good” about half of the time, but many video-game points would be earned as the opposing team didn’t really pursue me while I was running the “wrong way”. I was playing to…skewing…the metrics as opposed to playing the game as it was intended.
In summary, it is impossible to actually measure human behavior (or particle behavior) if the subject is aware of being measured. If they are aware, it will alter behavior thereby skewing the metrics.