wow, more than half..
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." — George Carlin
Shouldn't that be the median person for the quote to actually hold?
More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
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Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." — George Carlin
Shouldn't that be the median person for the quote to actually hold?
Given that most measures of intelligence follow nearly normal distributions (as long as you stay away from the tails), I think it doesn’t matter that much.
Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#13[flagged]
Wait... Your second paragraph is jarringly different from the first. How do they relate?
Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#14The question asked as part of the survey: “how well do you understand p-values?” Most scientists may not even be able to pass truthfully.
Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#15Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#16>> found that 62% of respondents reported no or limited statistical knowledge
The other 38% didn't understand the question...(my extrapolation)
I did a couple semesters of statistics at uni. And I can confidently say that the number of people who can answer 3 simple questions on statistics (like say mean versus medians, confidence levels or margins of error) is, well, a rounding error from 0.
Indeed, statistically, no-one has a clue how statistics work.
I did however learn enough to know that statistics can tell you absolutely anything you want them to say. Assuming you don't just make them up, they're trivial to manipulate to generate the headline you want.
When used to evaluate risk, the comprehension goes down further (a fact willfully exploited by any decent marketing.)
Statistically, most statistics are meaningless.
Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#17Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#18> The survey showed that 62% of U.S. adults self-report having little to no idea what statistics or statistical concepts like p-values are, but 90% of them would base decisions on reported statistics at least sometimes if they understood them better.
You're kidding, right? 38% self-report more than that? If their self-report were accurate it would imply an education system that has truly excelled.
Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait... Your second paragraph is jarringly different from the first. How do they relate?
And how do either of them relate to statistical literacy in the United States?
My interpretation is how the risks (statistics) of those job functions are more known, people choose to avoid them. But the people that are-the-statistic don't necessarily agree with or understand those statistics.
For example, if OP is a coal miner that hasn't had health issues yet, they may choose to discount statistics that declare x% of coal miners have negative health outcomes.
Re: More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
#20[deleted]