Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Welcome back to the Filter It Through a Brain Cell podcast, where you get a little smarter & a little harder to fool every time you listen! And, you guys, this is episode #200! WooHoo!
I am so thankful for all the new listeners & followers who have found this podcast recently, seriously, welcome! I really want to encourage you to go back and start listening from Episode 1. This podcast is kind of unique in that it’s a teaching podcast. Each episode is like a different lesson, so to speak, and I like to review often, so the episodes sort of build on each other. Of course, you can listen in whatever order you’d like to, but just know that it was designed to go in order, so listening that way may be helpful.
Anyways, let’s start off by reviewing a fallacy we covered earlier this season, the Fallacy of Confusing Explanations & Excuses. That’s a mouthful. The Fallacy of Confusing Explanations & Excuses happens when someone assumes that an explanation given for something is really just an excuse or an attempt to justify that thing, even when it’s a valid explanation.
Question to ask yourself: “Are they stating facts or making excuses?”
If you want to review or hear more about this fallacy, go back & check out Episode 140.
Before we dive in, I want to give a shoutout to one of this show’s sponsors, who I’m super excited is back to sponsor this show in 2024: CTC Math. “Have you ever wished for a math program that adapts to & changes along with your child's ability? CTC Math does exactly that. It’s an online program that uses smart questions that change in difficulty, so your kids are able to master concepts confidently. Plus, their progress is tracked automatically, making grading & record keeping simple. Ready to give it a try? Head to ctcmath.com for a free trial. It truly is Math learning tailored just for your child."
Ok, today we start a miniseries on Statistical Fallacies. I have to admit, I’ve had a list of Statistical Fallacies that I’ve been wanting to cover here for quite some time, but for some reason, have had trouble putting together good explanations for some of these. So I reached out to friends to get some help and my friend Thomas McCuddy has a background in mathematics & agreed to come on and help me talk about Statistical Fallacies. So the next 10 episodes are going to be a miniseries where we cover these fallacies. Now, I have already covered some fallacies here on the podcast that actually are statistical fallacies, like the Texas Sharpshooter #12, Cherry-Picking #145, Gambler’s Fallacy # 45, etc.
I want to tell you real quick about a book on this topic that you may enjoy reading. In fact, I think it should be required reading in high school. It’s called How To Lie With Statistics. I know, it sounds like a training manual on how to fool people, but it’s really a training manual on how to recognize Statistical fallacies! It’s excellent! It was written back in the ‘50s, I think, and I enjoyed reading it. It’ll definitely make you question the stats that are presented to you, and it’ll help you be able to think about them better!
Ok, without further ado, let’s get into the interview:
The Misuse of Averages Fallacy happens when someone tries to hide important data by just sharing or focusing on the average.
Question to ask yourself when someone presents you with average numbers is this: “Does this average really give me the full picture ?” *repeat*
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
