Tumblr Thread on Statistics Is a Necessary Dumbness Test

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Eric Lund
Jul 17, 2021 7:00 PM EDT

Math is hard for some folks on tumblr, but sometimes they really get into it, like the time they did the math on forging a literal blood sword. It's super common to see a headline along the lines of "smoking drywall dust increases risk of boneitis by 300%" which sounds extremely scary. But that number only means something if you know the potential boneitis risks of drywall smoking in the first place. We're not super good at math, but if the risk is only .05% and an increase of 300% raises it to .2%, just go ahead and smoke all the drywall dust you want*.

*don't smoke drywall dust. Also boneitis is a fictional disease from Futurama.

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  • 01
    Font - hello-kitty-senpai Heres the thing you gotta understand about statistics. "Increases your chances by 80%" does not mean "there is ככ now an 80% chance". If your chances were previously 10%, your chances are now 18%, not 90%.
    via SirChuckTheOftDownvoted
  • 02
    Font - if your chances were roughly 1%, they're now just slightly less than 2%. thats how that works. hopeful-weirdo Wow I don't understand math at all
    via SirChuckTheOftDownvoted
  • 03
    Font - anchirotleep 'if you have a baby after 35, the chance of deformities goes up by 100%' is a line I hear alot. It goes up from .5% to 1% fandomlockedfan I think my brain just stopped working
    via SirChuckTheOftDownvoted
  • 04
    Font - authorgirl1111 100% is just another way of saying twice more likely. So 100% more basically means multiply the number you do have by 2. that-catholic-shinobi Imagine how many woman are scared to have kids because of that statistic
    via SirChuckTheOftDownvoted
  • 05
    Font - bogleech I'm terrible at numbers and math but I knew this and I really take it for granted. The average person definitely assumes, quite understandably, that "600% INCREASE!!!" must always mean a whole lot even if it literally only means that one of something is now six of something. Politicians probably take a si.tload of advantage of this confusion.
    via SirChuckTheOftDownvoted
  • 06
    Font - hexmaniacmareen just remember that increased BY and increased TO are very different things. bogleech Oh god I didn't even think about that whole other layer of confusion.
    via SirChuckTheOftDownvoted
  • 07
    Font - Politicians probably take a shitload of advantage of this confusion. hexmaniacmareen just remember that increased BY and increased TO are very different things. bogleech Oh god I didn't even think about that whole other layer of confusion. Yeah if you've got 100 people and one of them is sick, that's 1% of them who are sick, so if it "increased BY 100%" then that means now two people are sick. If it's "increased TO 100%" then all 100 people are sick.
    via SirChuckTheOftDownvoted

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lesson tumblr smart interesting lol numbers life lessons dumb funny Statistics
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