Stat of the Week Winner: April 13 – 19 2013

Congratulations to Steve Black for his highly topical nomination for Stat of the Week:

Statistic: A bogus txt in poll on Campbell Life shows 22% support for the same sex marriage bill, 78% opposed.
Source: TV3 Campbell Live
Date: 17 April 2013

A bogus txt in poll on Campbell Life shows 22% support for the same sex marriage bill, 78% opposed. Nice illustration of just how far off bogus polls can be from general population results done by proper sampling techniques. Ironically, it came on the same day as the legislation passed 77 to 44. I can’t find a trace of it left on the TV3 web page, but I’m still collecting references. Note that the conservative blog I referenced considers it “The best indication yet, short of a referendum, of what the public actually think about same-sex marriage.” thus compounding the mistake of bogus polls taken as meaningful.

This bogus poll would be a perfect example for our first year introductory statistics course on non-sampling errors causing biased results.

Special mention also to Nick’s nomination of Statistics New Zealand’s latest New Zealand Period Life Tables.