5 ms·

In general, I wish the media would stop using just the average when the distribution is not normal.

• functionmouse 10mo ago
  That's exactly why they use averages, though. Propaganda is insidious in that way.
  • itsdrewmiller 10mo ago
    Who is “they”? I believe open AI would share averages for that reason but not that media would choose to cover it that way.
  • lokar 10mo ago
    I think the simpler answer (and thus more likely) is that statistics education in the US is very bad (they should teach stats in high school, not calculus), and reporters just don't understand it. And the ones who do, believe (correctly) that their audience does not understand it.
  • Garlef 10mo ago
    The whole way media treats numbers is more than tiring: "X increased by Y" Sure... but: - What's the relative increase? - Is this increase out of the ordinary? Annually? Globally? But I don't think this is some sort of conspiracy. Rather: Most journalists are not very smart.