New York Times Bestsellers: A Hunch Topic Snapshop
December 4, 2009
Kelly Ford

Content lead, Hunch Inc.

 

Overview

Hunch is a website which uses multiple-choice questions to help people make informed decisions, whether it's what kind of camera to buy, where to go on vacation, or more than 5,000 other topics. 

 

This Snapshop Report focuses on HunchÕs ÒNew York Times BestsellersÓ topic, which has been used more than 5,500 times over the last 4 months by visitors to the Hunch site.  The tables below represent the ranked popularity of NYT Bestsellers on Hunch based on two sets of criteria: 1) Characteristics of the reader based on questions they answered on Hunch, or 2) Attributes of the book itself.

 

 

 

 

Popular NYT Bestsellers among Hunch users, by characteristics of the reader

 

 

Popular among Males

Popular among Females

Popular among Liberals

#1: Outliers

#2: The Namesake

#3: When You are Engulfed In Flames

#4: The Rest is Noise

#5: SuperFreakonomics

#6: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

#7: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

#8: AngelaÕs Ashes

#9: Blink

#10:The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich & Poor in an Interconnected World

#1: Outliers

#2: The Namesake

#3: Julie & Julia

#4: Team of Rivals

#5: The Glass Castle

#6: True Compass

#7: When You are Engulfed In Flames

#8: AngelaÕs Ashes

#9: American Lion

#10:The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Popular among Conservatives

#1: Angels & Demons

#2: Outliers

#3: The Bourne Deception

#4: Team of Rivals

#5: The Bourne Sanction

#6: Odd Hours

#7: SuperFreakonomics

#8: Scarpetta

#9: The Namesake

#10:The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich & Poor in an Interconnected World

#1: Angels & Demons

#2: Team of Rivals

#3: Outliers

#4: Julie & Julia

#5: American Lion

#6: The Namesake

#7: The Bourne Deception

#8: True Compass

#9: Confessions of a Shopaholic

#10:The Last Song

 

Notes:   bold typeface indicates the book appears uniquely in a single quadrant among the 4 quadrants shown.

            italic typeface indicates books that appear in all 4 quadrants.

 

Popular NYT Bestsellers among Hunch users, by characteristics of the book

 

 

Non-fiction

Fiction

Hardback

#1: SuperFreakonomics

#2: Outliers

#3: The Accidental Billionaires

#4: The Limits of Power

#5: The Way of the World

#6: The Colossal Failure of Common Sense

#7: Hot, Flat & Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution & How it Can Renew America

#8: Always Looking Up

#9: Bobby and Jackie

#10:First Things First

#1: Rain Gods

#2: The Bourne Deception

#3: The Namesake

#4: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

#5: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

#6: The 8th Confession

#7: On Beauty

#8: Relentless

#9: Fool

#10:Guardian of Lies

Softcover

#1: When You are Engulfed In Flames

#2: AngelaÕs Ashes

#3: Blink

#4: Public Enemies

#5: The Family

#6: The Rest Is Noise

#7: Look Me In the Eye

#8: The Audacity of Hope

#9: My Stroke of Insight

#10:Dreams from my Father

#1: The Bourne Sanction

#2: Angels & Demons

#3: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

#4: The Appeal

#5: Scarpetta

#6: Phantom Prey

#7: 6th Target

#8: The Pillars of the Earth

#9: Divine Justice

#10:Dead Until Dark

 

So, in a nutshell...If youÕre looking for sure-fire hits that appeal to just about everyone, consider Outliers or The Namesake. For something more unique, try The Rest is Noise (for liberal males), The Glass Castle (liberal females), Odd Hours (conservative males), or Confessions of a Shopaholic (conservative females). To find a NYT Bestseller thatÕs customized to you (or someone on your gift list), try HunchÕs NYT BestsellerÕs topic.

The fine print

To arrive at a customized suggestion for each user, Hunch asks both "topic-specific" questions (Are you interested in fiction or non-fiction?, Hardback or paperback?) and also more general/personality-based questions (Can art change the world?,  Are you male or female?, What type of politicians do you tend to support?). When Hunch proposes a result, it also asks users whether they like it.  A ÒYesÓ or ÒNoÓ click by a user then ÒteachesÓ Hunch how that result correlates to the topic-specific and general/personality questions that the users has answered.  This forms the basis of popularity for HunchÕs ranked lists.

 

Hunch strives to uncover insights which are interesting, provocative, and which will stimulate discussion and debate. Hunch does not endorse or favor particular ideological points of view, and the contents of Hunch reports do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hunch as an entity or its staff or directors.

It should be noted that Hunch is not a professional research organization and this data was not collected in a perfectly controlled way. For example, Hunch data is based on 1) a group of individuals who are by definition all users of the Hunch website; these users are likely more internet-savvy than the general population, more open to new technologies, and more interested in social media. The group, while large at millions of users, has not been weighted to reflect actual demographic segmentation, and is not necessarily representative of general populations.  2) Questions on Hunch are voluntarily answered by users who choose to answer them, and any question can be selectively skipped. Therefore it's possible that those users who skipped a question might have different views than those who chose to answer a question, and this could change the ranking of popularity lists.

This and other Hunch reports are available in HTML and PDF formats at www.hunch.com/info/reports.