May 14, 2012
Stat of the Week Competition: May 12-18 2012
Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.
Here’s how it works:
- Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday May 18 2012.
- Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
- The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of May 12-18 2012 inclusive.
- Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.
Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.
The fine print:
- Judging will be conducted by the blog moderator in liaison with staff at the Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland.
- The judges’ decision will be final.
- The judges can decide not to award a prize if they do not believe a suitable statistic has been posted in the preceeding week.
- Only the first nomination of any individual example of a statistic used in the NZ media will qualify for the competition.
- Employees (other than student employees) of the Statistics department at the University of Auckland are not eligible to win.
- The person posting the winning entry will receive a $20 iTunes voucher.
- The blog moderator will contact the winner via their notified email address and advise the details of the $20 iTunes voucher to that same email address.
- The competition will commence Monday 8 August 2011 and continue until cancellation is notified on the blog.
Statistic: One out of every seven New Zealanders, or 605,800 of us, is now over 65. Last year, there were only 582,700 in that age group, and half a century ago, only 200,000.
Source: Stuff
Date: 15/05/2012
Comparing raw numbers across half a decade does not tell us anything useful. The point would be better made by describing the percentage of the population that was over 65 in 1962. Using the 1962 population estimate from Statistics New Zealand of 2 515 800 people (http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/estimates_and_projections/historical-population-tables.aspx) fewer than 1 in 12 people were aged over 65 in 1962. To me this is a more powerful statement of the change in the distribution of ages than the way it was reported in the article.
13 years ago
Statistic: Ethnic signs a worry for Kiwis, says study…
“Six people from a poll of 10 shoppers on Queen St told the Herald they were unhappy that signs without English were appearing in the city.”
Source: New Zealand Herald
Date: Tuesday May 15, 2012
Apparently ten shoppers in central Auckland is a representative sample of New Zealanders. In fact it is not even indicated any of them were New Zealanders.
13 years ago
Statistic: Do business signs that aren’t in English make you feel uncomfortable?
Yes, immigrants should use English on their business signs (38%)
Not sure, but they should at least always have translations to English (40%)
No, we’re a diverse society so whatever works (22%)
Source: New Zealand herald website
Date: 15th May 2012
This is the New Zealand Herald online poll that was alongside the article about the proliferation of non english signs. While the results can be taken with a grain of salt the thing that got me was the phrasing of the answers.
“Do business signs that aren’t in English make you feel uncomfortable? ” is a legitimate question to ask. However the possible answers were “Yes, immigrants should use English on their business signs (38%) ” You can feel that companies should use English without being uncomfortable of non English text.
“Not sure, but they should at least always have translations to English (40%) ” Again you can feel that in an English speaking country there should be English on all signs. Or just be not sure without a reason.
Even the simple answers of yes, no or I don’t know would make for a more unbiased survey
Hopefully we don’t see the results of this online poll appearing as evidence for or against any claims of xenophobia
As an aside what makes me rather upset is the use of the word immigrant. Are we not all immigrants to this country at one stage?
13 years ago
Statistic: Self-selecting polls show which option has the most supporters who care enough to cast a vote.
Source: New Zealand Herald
Date: 14 May 2012
The Herald appears to be trying to justify why they can headline bogus polls as news (https://www.statschat.org.nz/2012/05/13/bogus-polls-treated-as-news/).
But a self selecting poll does not in fact show which option has the most supporters among those who care to cast a vote.
The self-selectors did not select themselves based on their level of care. They selected themselves based on having internet access, reading the Herald web site, and willingness to participate in a bogus poll. They don’t represent any meaningful segment of NZ.
The poll is still bogus (even if they published the sample size).
13 years ago
Statistic: “Gaydar is real and accurate”
Source: NZ Herald
Date: 17 May
Survey participants accurately identified the sexuality of 65% of women and 57% of men when shown photos of their faces. Considering that we would expect at least a 50% success rate (posisbly higher, depending on whether or not researchers intentionally manipulated the numbers of photos of gay and straight people) using these success rates as evidence of “accurate” gaydar seems a little bit optimistic.
13 years ago
Statistic: Maybe a whole generation of kids has been brought up as narcissists because someone confused correlation with causation
Source: The Listener
Date: 12 May 2012
The Listener article does not really discuss the causes of the rise of narcissism in the latest generation of kids but the book Willpower by Baumeister and Tierney does.
For example, the state of California believed that “many if not most of the major problems plaguing society have roots in the low self esteem of many of the people who make up society.” “Virtually every social problem can be traced to people’s lack of self love.” Unwed mothers, drug addicts, and criminals had low self esteem. Several hundred studies, as another example, showed a positive correlation between self-esteem and good grades.
So California created a task force to boost self esteem and millions “began trying to improve children’s academic skills by encouraging them to think I’m really good at things”.
But it turned out that there WAS causation behind the correlation only it was the other way around – good grades created the high self esteem. The strategy has backfired, “when the going gets tough people with high self esteem often decide that they shouldn’t bother. If other people can’t appreciate how terrific they are then it’s the other people’s problem.”
13 years ago
Statistic: It’s statistically impossible for 80% of drivers to be above average – according to the Listener
Source: The Listener
Date: 12 May 2012
It’s NOT statistically impossible. If, say, four hundred drivers score 10 on a test and one hundred drivers score 9 then the average score is 9.8 and 80% of drivers exceed it.
13 years ago