grim_values: Achievable means behind a reported one

In scrutiny: Error Detection in Science

Achievable means behind a reported one

Description

These functions return the means (or percentages) that a sample of n * items_averaged integers can have:

• grim_values() returns every achievable value that would be reported as x, with the whole-number sum behind it. The result has no rows if x is GRIM-inconsistent with n.

• grim_closest() returns the single achievable value closest to x among those that would be reported as x, or, if there are none, the closest one overall. Of two equally close values, it returns the smaller.

Both are vectorized like grim(); case says which value set a row belongs to. grimmer_values() and grimmer_closest() are the counterparts for GRIMMER.

Usage

grim_values(
  x,
  n,
  digits_x,
  items_averaged,
  data_type,
  x_meaning = c("mean", "percentage"),
  rounding = "up_or_down",
  threshold = 5,
  symmetric = FALSE
)

grim_closest(
  x,
  n,
  digits_x,
  items_averaged,
  data_type,
  x_meaning = c("mean", "percentage"),
  rounding = "up_or_down",
  threshold = 5,
  symmetric = FALSE
)

Arguments

x	Numeric. The reported mean or percentage.
n	Integer. The reported sample size.
digits_x	Integer. The number of decimal places in x, including trailing zeros. There is no default, since a numeric value does not keep them (1.40 is 1.4).
items_averaged	Integer. As in grim().
data_type	String. "integer" if the values are whole numbers, as in grim(). There is no default, so that every call states this assumption. "continuous" is an error: such data can have any value that would be reported as the one given, so there are none to list. Under NA, a value set is undecidable unless no data can have it.
x_meaning	String. "mean" (the default) or "percentage", as in grim().
rounding, threshold, symmetric	The same as in grim().

Details

The achievable means are the whole numbers in the range that grim_map() shows as sum_lower and sum_upper under show_rec, each divided by n * items_averaged. Once n * items_averaged exceeds 10^digits_x, several of them can be reported as the same x, and their number grows with n * items_averaged. GRIM is then no longer informative. grim_closest() stays cheap in that case. grim_values() does not, and more than a million values for one value set is an error.

With x_meaning = "percentage", the values are percentages, like x.

Under rounding = "even", or its synonym "ties_even", both bounds of that range are inclusive (see roundwork::unround()), so the values include ties that base::round() may round away from x: grim_values(1.3, 20, 1, 1, "integer", rounding = "even") returns 1.25 and 1.35 along with 1.3.

With items_averaged > 1, the integers are the respondents' totals across the items, so sum is the sum of the totals.

Value

• For grim_values(), a tibble with one row per achievable mean. case is the index of the value set, i.e., the position in the inputs after they are recycled to a common length, so it also counts through n if x is a single value. x is the achievable value, n the reported sample size, items_averaged as given, and sum the whole number behind x, the sum of all n * items_averaged item scores. An inconsistent value set has no rows, and one that cannot be decided has one row of NA but for n and items_averaged, as in grim(). So does one with a missing digits_x that is consistent whatever it is: how many values would be reported as x still depends on it.

• For grim_closest(), a tibble with the same columns and exactly one row per value set: the closest achievable mean, or a row of NA but for n and items_averaged if the value set cannot be decided.

References

Brown, N. J. L., & Heathers, J. A. J. (2017). The GRIM Test: A Simple Technique Detects Numerous Anomalies in the Reporting of Results in Psychology. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(4), 363–369. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550616673876

See Also

grim(), grim_map(), grimmer_values(), and grim_exp_incon().

Examples

# A mean of 5.19 is consistent with a sample size of 32,
# and there is exactly one way to get there:
grim_values(x = 5.19, n = 32, digits_x = 2, items_averaged = 1, data_type = "integer")

# With a larger sample, several means round to 5.19:
grim_values(x = 5.19, n = 300, digits_x = 2, items_averaged = 1, data_type = "integer")

# It is not consistent with a sample size of 28...
grim_values(x = 5.19, n = 28, digits_x = 2, items_averaged = 1, data_type = "integer")

# ...but 5.19 is close to a mean that is achievable:
grim_closest(x = 5.19, n = 28, digits_x = 2, items_averaged = 1, data_type = "integer")

# Both functions are vectorized. In `grim_values()`, `case` is the index of
# the value set, and an inconsistent one has no rows:
grim_values(
  x = c(5.19, 4.2),
  n = c(28, 30),
  digits_x = 2,
  items_averaged = 1,
  data_type = "integer"
)
grim_closest(
  x = c(5.19, 4.2),
  n = c(28, 30),
  digits_x = 2,
  items_averaged = 1,
  data_type = "integer"
)

scrutiny documentation built on Nov. 11, 2026, 1:09 a.m.