Comments | punkwalrus: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

punkwalrus

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Dec 07, 2007 16:10

One of the lessons I remember from elementary school was a story about some guy who was a scam artist. It was in a film about how you can make statistics lie. I don't recall who put it out, but it was in some 1970s hygiene film format geared for my age group at the time ( Read more... )

polls, lies, penn and teller, statistics

Comments 4

dr_zrfq December 7 2007, 21:21:27 UTC

most of you may be thinking you know where this is going: the list was rigged, and the sample pollers were plants. They weren't.

Ah, but the list *was* rigged -- just not by having plants as the sample pollers.

Political polls are always problematical. Always have been. Check out Doonesbury from late 1979 and early to mid 1980... or "You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown".

Thanks! stormwindz December 7 2007, 23:09:22 UTC

This has just given me a great idea for a character I'm playing in a Vampire LARP who's about to sieze power.

aurienne December 8 2007, 01:40:30 UTC

If there were slightly less cussing, I'd totally use that in my classes before the research sections (and also to talk about connotations of phrasings).

dptwisted December 8 2007, 22:01:50 UTC

See also: Neilsen Ratings. Wonder why the rabidly popular shows reguarly get canceled? Because it's cello players that get polled, and they don't watch Firefly.