NationStates Jolt Archive


What percentage of statistics are made up on the spot?

Super-power
13-02-2006, 00:50
See poll
Achtung 45
13-02-2006, 00:51
93%
Pure Metal
13-02-2006, 00:52
73%

or 21% depending on which imaginary polling company you use *nods*
Lunatic Goofballs
13-02-2006, 00:53
"Recent polls reveal that some people have never been polled. Until recently." -George Carlin.
Gooooold
13-02-2006, 00:55
I think you'll find that it's 84%.
Turquoise Days
13-02-2006, 00:57
42% The other 58% is preprepared so it fits their story. The number-manipulating bar-stewards.
Utracia
13-02-2006, 01:07
Who knows? 35%? I guess it would depend on who got the results.
Fairfacts
13-02-2006, 01:08
I would have to perform a scientific study to answer that query
Qwystyria
13-02-2006, 01:12
My mom got a book from her brother once... Cvltvre Made Stvpid by Tom Weller. I do not have access to the book, but it has a (made up on the spot) statistic for that which I recently paraphrased, making it up on the spot myself. I stand by whatever it is Tom Weller said. Just because Tom Weller said it.

(Another of his books, which many of you would probably appreciate, can be found online here. (http://www.besse.at/sms/smsintro.html))
Kleptonis
13-02-2006, 01:15
21%. Coincidentially, that's the same percentage of poll responses I make up on the spot.
People without names
13-02-2006, 01:16
im going to have to go with 101%
H N Fiddlebottoms VIII
13-02-2006, 01:19
77.777777777777777%, because I like sevens.
Kiwi-kiwi
13-02-2006, 01:20
53.85%
Randomlittleisland
13-02-2006, 01:40
It was originally 66.599999999% but the bullshit on this thread just pushed it up to exactly 66.6%. The end is nigh!:eek:
AllCoolNamesAreTaken
13-02-2006, 01:45
Statistics on a whole are crap. First you have the stats people just make up. Then you have the stats they swear are legit, but came from a crummy website which made them up. Then you have the stats from a medium quality website that are skewed because they were not scientifically done. Then you have the stats from "reliable" websites and news organizations, which may or may not have been done scientifically, but still have large margins of error, or the questions were geared to certain responses, or were asked of too small a sampling, or were too limited to one area/group, or...

THEN, you have the fact that no matter how "accurate" a statistical poll is, it cannot be truly acurate because you didn't ask every single person. Which would be the only way for it to be accurate, assuming that no one lied to you or misrepresented their position.

So, basically, I calculate a 99.6913666% chance that all statistics are either made up on the spot, misrepresented, or inaccurate.
Goodlifes
13-02-2006, 01:46
Well, I was told on one of these threads that birth control was 100% effective so we didn't need to worry about producing bastad children. I guess there's a lot of miraculous conception.
The Otways
13-02-2006, 08:41
Fourfty percent!
Greater Canadiana
13-02-2006, 08:47
100%, +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20
Demented Hamsters
13-02-2006, 09:12
Let the great man speak:
“Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that.”
The ancient Republic
13-02-2006, 10:05
72.314%..duh, everyone knows that.
Damor
13-02-2006, 10:27
THEN, you have the fact that no matter how "accurate" a statistical poll is, it cannot be truly acurate because you didn't ask every single person. Which would be the only way for it to be accurate, assuming that no one lied to you or misrepresented their position.You don't need 100% accuracy though. You can estimate how accurate a representative poll is from the number of people participating. And say for instance that with 99% certainty the real number is within 3% of what you found. So if you find that 93% of people simply don't understand statistics, you can be pretty sure that 9 out of 10 people in fact don't.

Statistics aren't generally crap, they're just misunderstood and misrepresented. All medical trials are based on statistics; so basicly if you say all statistics is crap, you're saying medical science has accomplished absolutely nothing. And that's patently false.
Perkeleenmaa
13-02-2006, 10:51
Misinterpreting statistics is much easier and looks better than making it up.

For example, gun nuts often cite Finland as an example of high gun ownership and low murder rate. The premise itself is made-up: "guns are bad, so less guns, less bad". The fact is that Finland has strict gun control laws and a tradition of using guns for hunting, instead of "personal protection".
Peisandros
13-02-2006, 10:54
Somewhere between.. Say, 30% and.. I dunno.. Like.. 97%.
Longlunch
13-02-2006, 13:17
See poll

... your poll has no option for "other".

.
Good Lifes
13-02-2006, 15:08
Here's a great web site for polls:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Presidential_04/bush_ja.html
Irijatli Feliryha
13-02-2006, 16:08
74%

Though, I think for this result, it will be 100%, unless someone here has expertise in the area.