Anyone who has taken a statistics or psychology course would likely immediately know that there are a few things wrong with data collected in this manner. Please, do not assume that this data is a fully accurate representation of the complete human population. Here are a few reasons why you should be careful when observing the data on this website:
- This data is collected from volunteers only
- When making conclusions about a population, it is important to have a randomly selected sample to make observations from. The data that you can find on this website has been collected by volunteers only, and may therefore be skewed and not fully represent the truth.
- This is an observational study
- In order to determine cause and effect, you must conduct an experiment with various treatments and a control group. The data found in the Moment Project is simply observed, and was not found in an experiment. Therefore, you cannot assume cause and effect from any conclusions on this website.
- Data quality issues
- As more time has passed since the moment that changed a person’s life, the more likely they are to misremember it or for small details to change. While I don’t believe that this is a monumental concern, recall bias could amount for minor inconsistencies or skewed data.
- Incomplete outreach and missing demographics
- Due to the methods of outreach that I have used, there is a significant possibility that some demographics do not have access to submit the most impactful moments of their lives. For example, older generations who do not use social media as much may not be represented in this study. Additionally, non-English speakers may not understand this project and therefore not submit their moments. These are just a few example of demographics who would not be represented in this study.
- Confounding variables
- Due to the wide range of people and situations depicted on this website, there are many confounding variables that may influence the severity of the moment submitted as well as the outcome of that moment. Variables may include, but are not limited to socioeconomic status, education level, personality traits, familial support, etc.
Nevertheless, there is so much we can learn from The Moment Project and the data that I have collected. Please visit my Takeaways page by pressing the button below to learn more about the takeaways that I have gained and that I hope you will gain from this project!
The Moment Project 