[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-1615”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“alt”:“Wall Street Journal”}}]]Preventing national bias from affecting judges’ scores at the Olympics is a challenge, writes Carl Bialik in his Wall Street Journal blog, “The Numbers Guy.” The blog’s analysis of methods designed to prevent bias among judges includes insights from Eric Zitzewitz, an associate professor of economics at Dartmouth. “It’s very hard to design a perfect system in a vacuum,” Zitzewitz tells The Wall Street Journal. “It depends on the specific form of activity you’re trying to prevent.”

Zitzewitz is among the researchers, The Wall Street Journal notes, who believe that providing transparency about judges’ scores is important in identifying manipulation. “It’s naive to think there’s a perfect system out there that is robust to manipulation. The great thing about transparency is, it helps you detect any form of manipulation,” Zitzewitz says.

Read the full story, published 7/27/12 in The Wall Street Journal.