2000 bloggers social experiment: The results
At last, it’s finally here, the results of the 2000
bloggers social experiment started back in January of this year. As some
of you may know Tino
Buntic started this 2000 bloggers project, which showcased 2000 bloggers
photos and gave a link back to each of them. However this caused a bit
of a stir in the Technorati ranks and subsequently Tino pulled the project,
through choice.
However it did not end there and Tino has become known all over the blogosphere
due to the blogs and sites that reported the project. It has spawned
a host of other projects including this one. I wanted to use the 2000
bloggers project to find out why people would click on a photo and what features
they listed as the most attractive. See the bottom of this post for other blogs
using the 2000 bloggers project.
The results
I have collated all the comments and e-mails I received about the 2000
bloggers experiment. I have looked at a number of factors and the
ones I have chosen to post the results on are:
Reasons for clicking on a photo
The most clicked on photo
Most popular features
I think this was a good experiment and I received over 70 replies by e-mails
and comments so it is big enough to tell us something.
When I first started the experiment I expected people to click on photos based
on looks and sexiness. I expected it to be physical, how wrong I was. Only
5% clicked on a photo thinking they were ‘hot’.
Here are the results:
Reasons for clicking on a photo:

Most popular features

The most clicked on photos
There were two photos that were mentioned more than once and they were:
The most attractive face on the internet?
There was one outstanding winner between all the photos mentioned and clicked
and that was
This was, by far, the most mentioned person and most clicked on photo from
this experiment. Most people mentioned the smile and she looked as if
she was having fun,
Could this be the most attractive face on the internet?
I think this was a worthwhile experiment and shows that bloggers,
who are a different breed, do not just go for attractiveness when clicking
on photos. Of course when someone smiles they instantly become more attractive,
and that was shown in the AmberMac photo. Obviously Amber Mac is attractive
enough without the smile but the smile drew the readers to her photo. The
fact that bloggers reported photos that were interesting attracted them, tells
me something of the curious nature of bloggers.
This experiment is not a true representation of the population
as it was all bloggers who participated in the experiment. Bloggers,
as I said, are a different breed of person. We are curious, intelligent,web
savvy and obviously have a bit of drive and ambition to even start a blog and
continue it. Nonetheless it was an interesting experiment and I hope you
enjoyed taking part.
Other blogs using the original 2000 bloggers project:
Elaine
Vigneault started the 2000 bloggers community blog and listed some of
the other blogs and sites using the original project.
- Using it for social experiments (Steven
Aitchison) - Wanting to use the photos as book covers (Jaffe
Juice) - Meeting our neighbours (Meg)
- Astrology based on the 2000 blogger group (eDragonu)
- Where do we live? See the Frappr map at One
Powerful Word - Banners and mini photos at The
Thinking Blog. - Banners at Serendipity
Mine - Many of us are at MyBlogLog in the Original 2000
Bloggers Community or in the New 2kBloggers
Community. - We started a Flickr
Group to share photos.
Popularity: 1% [?]
| CYT Guide to Lucid Dreaming | CYT Guide to making true friends |
|---|---|
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Comment by Jeremy Jacobs on 4 March 2007:
The ubiquitous Amber Mac!
Comment by Sania Wyatt on 4 March 2007:
Amber has a really beautiful and shining smile!
Comment by Elaine Vigneault on 4 March 2007:
Hey, Amber and I could be twins.
Just kidding
This was interesting. Thanks for doing it.
PS - your readers can see the 2k Bloggers photo montage here:
http://www.2kbloggers.com/photo-montage/
Pingback by 2000 Bloggers - » Hey, look what the 2000 Bloggers are doing! on 4 March 2007:
[...] Steve Aitchison has published the results of his social experiment based on the 2000 Bloggers. Take a look at his neat charts and graphs. [...]
Comment by Biggs on 6 March 2007:
This is great analysis. Nice Work man !!
Comment by Western Infidels on 7 March 2007:
Amber’s photo looks just like countless thousands of stock photos of smiling and/or laughing young women used to spruce up brochures, catalogs and websites since time immemorial.
I guess the people who make those stock photos — and the people who buy them — know something.
Comment by Audi on 25 May 2007:
I think I will put up a smiling photo on my personal blog from now on
Too bad I don’t have vivid-colorful blog. 