>Surprising, but you can't just dismiss statistics on the basis that they're surprising to you. Why not? While there are many falacies that people are surpris

>Surprising, but you can't just dismiss statistics on the basis that they're surprising to you. Why not? While there are many falacies that people are surprised by that are mathematically true, when someone presents numbers, the more surprising the claim, the more evidence they need to present to back it. Science isn't perfect, there is the possibility of error, fraud, and the whole messy bit of scientific reporting having an abysmal record of accurately reporting what scientists say. For a surprising enough claim, without multiple verifications from independent sources, it is fine to dismiss it.