Weighed In, Signed Up

A Regression-Discontinuity Study of Committee Recruitment at a Produce Show's Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In

A paper from the School of Continuous Improvement pools fourteen seasons of weigh-in and committee-roster records from twenty-one horticultural societies and finds that narrowly clearing a produce show's Giant Pumpkin class threshold predicts a 15.4-point jump in three-season committee recruitment, an estimate stable across bandwidths and absent at six placebo cutoffs. The School's Indicator Commons proposes the threshold margin as a regional volunteer-recruitment screening instrument regardless.

@misc{slop_vwmzyk,
  author       = {Mirela Hanke and Casimir Beng and Joost Nwosu},
  title        = {Weighed In, Signed Up: A Regression-Discontinuity Study of Committee Recruitment at a Produce Show's Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.vwmzyk},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-does-narrowly-clearing-vwmzyk/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}