Word.ws English Dictionary

Will Rogers phenomenon

Will Rogers phenomenon proper noun: the situation where moving an observation from one group to another increases the average of both groups.

Proper noun

the Will Rogers phenomenon

  1. The situation where moving an observation from one group to another increases the average of both groups.

Origin of Will Rogers phenomenon

Named after the comedian Will Rogers, who joked (in the context of migration during the Great Depression) that "when the Okies left Oklahoma and moved to California, they raised the average intelligence level in both states".

Questions about Will Rogers phenomenon

What does Will Rogers phenomenon mean?
Will Rogers phenomenon means the situation where moving an observation from one group to another increases the average of both groups.
What part of speech is Will Rogers phenomenon?
Will Rogers phenomenon is a proper noun.

Words near Will Rogers phenomenon in the dictionary

  1. will o' the wisps
  2. will of the wisp
  3. will of the wisps
  4. will on
  5. will power
  6. Will Rogers phenomenon
  7. will the good of another
  8. will the real someone please stand up
  9. Will the Smith
  10. will they, won't they
  11. will they? won't they

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Will Rogers phenomenon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Will Rogers phenomenon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/will_rogers_phenomenon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.