4 ms·
Half of all Americans have lower than average understanding of statistics (or at least, lower understanding than the average American)
by d1sxeyes 1mo ago
Half of all Americans have lower than average understanding of statistics (or at least, lower understanding than the average American)
- defrost 1mo agoReally? Why not 5% of Americans having the same average level of understanding and only 47.5% having a lower than average understanding? What assumptions are you making, and why should they be true?
- sethammons 1mo agoIt is the same as wealth, or any dataset that has large data outliers on one side. Average and mean are the same: normal distribution. Average higher than mean: skewed by big outliers. Professional statistician affects the distribution of statistics knowledge like billionaires affect wealth distribution.
- defrost 1mo agoCongrats for having a shot, sadly that doesn't answer the questions posed in the slightest. Again, why does the GP assume that a full half are distinctly lower than "average understanding" ? Why the assumption that multiple numbers cannot share an average understanding?
- d1sxeyes 1mo agoIt was a joke, you are, of course, technically correct, there’s no requirement for the mean and median to be the same.
- defrost 1mo agoFair point, in my time zone it was late, I was crabby, and there was a surrounding context of "bad statistics" comments. That said, If the mean and median were the same your statement would still not be always true. For more than one reason.
- d1sxeyes 1mo agoNo harm done :) I’m interested, in what cases would it not be true if we assume “average” here to be “median”? I can only think of one: if we consider “understanding” to be discrete rather than continuous.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]