Tuesday, September 23, 2008

How stupid do you think I am

I heard the following quote yesterday on a Degree Clinical Protection commercial:

1 out of 4 people think they sweat more than the average person.


I'm sorry, but this is one of the lamest statistics I have ever heard, and I follow political news. First off, there's the whole "think" aspect to this study.  There's no diagnostic tool applied, just a personal survey.  Then on top of that there is a statistical fallacy.  This statistic implies that the average person is a median, not a mean.  When using a median for an average by definition 50% of people are above and 50% of people are below.  Therefore, 2 out of 4 people sweat more than the average person by definition.

All in all, a totally lame and insulting technique of hocking your wares.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

They sure convinced me with the "think" part