LostLetterR Documentation

Return Rates for "Lost" Letters

Description

Which "lost" letters will be returned by the public?

Format

A data frame with 140 observations on the following 8 variables.

Location Where letter was "lost": DesMoines, GrinnellCampus, or GrinnellTown
Address Address on the letter: Confederacy or Peaceworks
Returned 1=letter was returned or 0=letter was not returned
DesMoines Indicator for letters left in Des Moines
GrinnellTown Indicator for letters left in the town of Grinnell
GrinellCampus Indicator for letters left on the Grinnell campus
Peaceworks Indicator for letters addressed to Iowa Peaceworks
Confederacy Indicator for letters addressed to Friends of the Confederacy

Details

In 1999 Grinnell College students Laurelin Muir and Adam Gratch conducted an experiment for an introductory statistics class. They intentionally "lost" 140 letters in either the city of Des Moines, the town of Grinnell, or on the Grinnell College campus. Half of each sample were addressed to Friends of the Confederacy and the other half to Iowa Peaceworks. The students kept track of which letters were eventually returned.

Source

Student project at Grinnell College