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User's corner: The perfect Halloween candy

In the aftermath of Halloween, many of us are left with a few candies still populating the bottom of the bowl. Why weren't they taken? What have these candies done to make them not one of the chosen ones? What do we need to know for next year?

Published just in time for this year's Halloween, The Ultimate Halloween Candy Power Ranking, compiled by Walt Hickey of FiveThirtyEight, reveals the popularity of 86 different candies. Reese's varieties dominated the rankings, with Twix, Kit Kat, and Snickers also snatching up top places.

But Hickey wanted to take it a step further. What made these candies prevail over the others? He took the dominant features of common Halloween candies (ingredients, bar form, etc.) and ran a regression in Stata to see how they contributed to the candies' rankings. Chocolate came out on top, while hard candies lost points.

Want to know more? For detailed results and to see Hickey's recommendations for the perfect "Frankencandy", read the full article.


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