Last night I was watching The Power of 10 on CBS (with celebrity host Drew Carey!). Let me start by saying it’s been a while since I’ve watched a game show that airs in primetime. After seeing it 3 times now, I’m a big fan of this show. I love statistics and I love polls and surveys. I’m a fan of The Power of 10 for the same reason I love Family Feud, I love guessing what American’s think on every subject under the sun.

Last night a contestant lost on the following food related question: “What percentage of American MEN said if they had to kill the cow themselves, they would still eat hamburgers?”

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The contestant had a 20-point range to guess in, and guessed between 50% and 70%, thus getting the question wrong and being eliminated. My thoughts on the 79% total for this question? BULLSHIT. Yeah that’s right, I call BULLSHIT in a big way. This is the perfect example of a question where people will SAY something, but not necessarily do it.

The contestant thought he was guessing high, and his logic was that all the rural folk, ranchers, farmers etc. would not even think twice about killing a cow themselves. But it ended up being an even higher percentage than he thought.

Frankly, I’m not buying it. Thinking about my friends, I can think of only one or two of 10-15 people that would actually slay a cow themselves. 79% of people SAID they would kill a cow themselves, but if you hand them a giant machete and put them in front of a cow, I bet you that 79% drops to about 40%.

Not surprisingly, the results for women were drastically different then for men:

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So most men would kill a cow themselves in order to eat a burger, most women would not. Interestingly, men 18-29 are more likely than those 65 and over to kill the cow…surprising to me, since many more of the 65+ generation must have grown up on a farm then my generation.

What do you think? Would you eat hamburger if you had to kill the cow yourself whenever you wanted a burger? Do you buy that 79% of the country would actually do that?

12 Responses

  1. ruca bangs

    I would do it. Burgers and steaks are delish and cows are basically pointless animals, made for predetors to munch on.

    a machete is a little brutal, but it looked fun in apocalypse now.

    i’m hungry now! mooooo!

    %79 would not do it, my guess would be %50.

    They shouldn’t have hot sounding girls give these polls because it skews the numbers. Dudes want to sound harcore so they say they’ll do it to impress, and girls HATE other girls and therefore will always disagree with each other, hence the %10. Is it a coincidence that %10 of people are gay?

    They should put in a second question, like: 1) would you kill a cow? %79 of men: yes Would you really? %29 (bashfully) no…

    Reply
  2. Eick

    What’s your deal with putting the % sign before a number instead of after it?

    Good point about hot women asking questions though.

    Reply
  3. Krys

    Hmmm. I have a really hard time figuring out what other people are thinking. That’s why I’m wonderfully antisocial.

    Personally, I’d have no problem actually butchering the cow, but I don’t know that I’d actually be able to kill it. Maybe I’d be able to, but I don’t think I’d want to eat it right away.

    Reply
  4. Youppi

    Well, eick, the question was how many men SAID they would do it. It wasn’t “we gave 100 men an axe and gave them the chance to kill a cow, and later eat it, how many did?” You’re right, a lot of people would say it but not do it, but isn’t that what you are supposed to guess? How many people SAID it? I think if you are a contestant and drew carey essentially asked “how many american men want people to think they have balls” I would guess the answer would be on the higher side.

    eick – get me on this show. or: you get on the show, I’ll be the guy on the side telling you to “lock it in” and then we share the money.

    Reply
  5. ruca bangs

    My deal is that percentage, in a way, is like a value of something, and since you put the dollar sign before a number, why not the %? Its nice to be up in front about the non-letter symblos so you know what you’re dealing with right off the bat. Thats why i love the upside down ? to start of a question in spanish. If I knew how to make my computer type it, I’d use it all the time.

    I misspelled ‘predators’ in my first comment. I am an idiot.

    Reply
  6. Paul

    I think the hard part is not killing the cow, but actually carving it up to eat it. That is where it would start to get gross.

    Reply
  8. shatraw

    dude, i used to kill cows for fun. that’s how we roll in northern new york. just go out, get drunk in a field, then a kill a cow.

    now that’s a childhood.

    Reply
  9. woodrockBVS

    I dont see your logic. The past month has been dear season, and all those hunters go out there and harvest their own meat, field dress it in the woods, and then process it, and then grill it.

    I would do the same to a cow.

    Reply
  11. Tyler Hyland

    I would not kill a cow because they are so helpless. They can’t even move, I’d rather go deer hunting twice a week before work to get my meat, than kill a cow. I love meat, but not enough to kill the cow, and I love hunting. The 79% is definitely bullshit, guys talk a big game, but killing an animal that big and helpless is not easy.

    Reply
  12. Melanie

    Yeah, I second the bullshit motion. I’m surprised 80% had the chutzpah to pretend they’d actually do it.

    In fact, this question is precisely why I made the decision to stop eating meat a few weeks back.

    It’s sooo hard though since pigs (especially the bacon part) and cows are quite tasty… but I figured that if I didn’t even like consciously acknowledging meat to be the flesh of an animal, then it would be disingenuous of me to eat it.

    (Still eat most seafood though; I have no issues watching fish and scallops turned into food for my the benefit of my taste buds.)

    Reply

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