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The original title sticks to the actual claim, and doesn't add subtext. You can interpret "one in five" in either direction. You can say 80% of Brexit voters ar

The original title sticks to the actual claim, and doesn't add subtext. You can interpret "one in five" in either direction. You can say 80% of Brexit voters are still fine with their vote, or you can say the 20% who have changed their minds would be enough to reverse the decision could the vote be held again now. So yeah, adding words does add subtext, but your phrasing of this seems to imply that there is existing subtext. What do you see, specifically?

543ge4q3 4y ago
Choice of words is a component of subtext, as you hinted at yourself. Below I have hilighted the key action word, which is also an important choice when setting subtext. "One in 5 people now think" is a positive-sounding construction which lends more statstical weight to the result than an impartial examination of the numbers, and people who scan headlines are far from impartial. Other constructions are "4 in 5 still support...", or "80% still support", or "20% now think", which are all still mathematically neutral, but the subtext is different.
- sjsdaiuasgdia 4y ago
  Is there a phrasing you think would be neutral that still references that data point? I'm struggling to figure out a neutral phrasing involving this data point. My reading of your response indicates that you see a temporal indicator ("now") or a delta indicator ("still" / "no longer") as both introducing bias. "One in five people think Brexit was the wrong decision" without anything clarifying significantly misrepresents the data. It seems your issue is actually with the data point being in the headline at all. Maybe the headline should be a dry thing like "A Brexit survey happened, read inside for details". I won't entirely disagree. But I think this is less about word choice than you think.
  - 543ge4q3 4y ago
    I think it was the book "How to lie with statistics" that dedicated a page or two to the perceived differences when "x%" is used vs "1 in x", depending on the actual value. I think that using "20% now think that..." would give a more accurate impression to someone scanning the headline.

543ge4q3 4y ago

Choice of words is a component of subtext, as you hinted at yourself. Below I have hilighted the key action word, which is also an important choice when setting subtext. "One in 5 people now think" is a positive-sounding construction which lends more statstical weight to the result than an impartial examination of the numbers, and people who scan headlines are far from impartial. Other constructions are "4 in 5 still support...", or "80% still support", or "20% now think", which are all still mathematically neutral, but the subtext is different.

sjsdaiuasgdia 4y ago
Is there a phrasing you think would be neutral that still references that data point? I'm struggling to figure out a neutral phrasing involving this data point. My reading of your response indicates that you see a temporal indicator ("now") or a delta indicator ("still" / "no longer") as both introducing bias. "One in five people think Brexit was the wrong decision" without anything clarifying significantly misrepresents the data. It seems your issue is actually with the data point being in the headline at all. Maybe the headline should be a dry thing like "A Brexit survey happened, read inside for details". I won't entirely disagree. But I think this is less about word choice than you think.
- 543ge4q3 4y ago
  I think it was the book "How to lie with statistics" that dedicated a page or two to the perceived differences when "x%" is used vs "1 in x", depending on the actual value. I think that using "20% now think that..." would give a more accurate impression to someone scanning the headline.