Catching up with ‘Ben the Survey Guy’

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Do people wear shoes in their houses? Should the U.S. adopt the metric system? How many people would take $1 million if their worst enemy also got $2 million? One Penn State student, Ben Scamacca (senior-computer science), has the answers to these questions.

Scamacca, also known as ‘Ben the Survey Guy,’ started surveying people during his freshman year of high school. He would ask people questions in-person, writing down the answers on a pad of paper.

What began as an argument between siblings evolved into something larger, a hobby that has continued into Scamacca’s college career.

“I basically just surveyed people to try to resolve the argument,” Scamacca said. “Then I thought, maybe I could just keep this going.”

Scamacca said that he felt that his hobby was engaging, and that he enjoyed the process of surveying.

The surveys were “mostly random” according to Scamacca, and they consisted of “whatever came to mind at the time.”

Scamacca said that he has done around two thousand surveys in total, over the course of high school and into his senior year of college at Penn State.

Despite the novelty of frequent surveys, Scamacca said that over time, people got used to his presence.

“Some people wouldn’t answer, but I got quite a decent amount of support, even from the very beginning,” he said. “As I became more popular, more people answered, more people just got used to the idea.”

Eugene Ryoo (senior-cybersecurity), someone who was surveyed by Scamacca in high school, said that he admired Scamacca’s hobby — thinking of it as brave.

“I went to high school with him,” Ryoo said. “I think it’s really cool what he’s doing. I certainly don’t have the bravery to go and ask people survey questions every day.”

However, the support decreased as he continued surveying people in college.

“The support has definitely been a lot less in college,” Scamacca said. “You definitely get a lot fewer people answering. I think that’s just because there’s more people. So, less exposure overall.”

Scamacca’s freshman roommate, Jason Zubris (senior-environmental resource management), spoke highly of Scamacca and his hobby.

“It takes a lot to just, you know, go out and talk to random people,” Zubris said. “I think it’s really just a good way to get yourself out there. It was cool to see his posts on Twitter.”

Scamacca has a Twitter page (@ManManMan36) where he asks his survey questions; he stopped asking them in-person when COVID-19 started.

Even though Ryoo didn’t know Scamacca well, he said that Scamacca seemed like a cool person.

“He is the kindest, most genuine person I’ve ever met,” Zubris said. “He told me how during graduation he went up on stage and asked a final question or something like that at the final survey at graduation. I thought that was awesome.”

Regardless of the large crowd, Scamacca said that he wasn’t nervous about giving that final survey at his high school graduation.

After keeping up with his hobby for years, Scamacca said that he plans to stop eventually.

“I am definitely slowing down, though,” he said. “Probably not too much longer, to be honest.”