No Whataburger? This fast food study is problematic
"These are the most popular fast food chains in every state - and America has a clear winner," Business Insider proclaimed in a tweet Thursday.
The tweet included a map that shows a sea of red Chik-fil-A logos, with a few other pops of color. Most shockingly, Texas was yellow with the logo of In-N-Out Burger.
Yes, this study says that Texans' favorite fast food place is a Californian burger joint that you can't even find unless you're driving down I-35. Who's buying that?
Turns out, California is just as upset about their result.
Could this strange study be true? Unlike this food, not so fast!
There's more than one red flag with this study including that the tweet was deleted.
Business Insider teamed up with Foursquare to collect the data. Remember Foursquare? The social media check-in app that was made irrelevant when Facebook and social platforms gave users that same function.
The article states that they calculated, "which chains received the most visits on average per location in every state based on the total number of visits to each chain divided by the number of locations in that state."
For example, say there were 10 Whataburgers in Texas and five In-N-Outs. If both places had 100 visits, In-N-Out wins because that would be 20 visits on average to Whataburger's 10.
This explains how South Dakota's result was Popeyes, despite there only being three location in the entire state.
Not only is the formula flawed, but the map really shows the favorite fast food restaurants of Foursquare users. Basically, it illustrates the preferences of those years outside of the social media zeitgeist.
Is In-N-Out burger the favorite fast food chain in Texas? No and we know why. Check out our article, "7 ways Whataburger wallops In-N-Out Burger."
