How Do We Know if Our Contests Are "Fair"?

Wendy Hein, Oregon State UniversityFollow

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Abstract

Adults are often forthright with their concerns about the fairness of contests. In the case study reported here, clients were upset about the Master Showmanship Contest and whether "goat members always win." I predicted that, in a fair contest, winning should be independent of project area and used empirical tests to show that it is. I also measured the perceptions of two additional groups of stakeholders in the contest: youth participants and judges. The results indicate that perceptions can differ drastically from actuality, which has ramifications for 4-H and all areas of Extension work that rely on client input.