Advertisement

Futureproof Extra: Trusting Statistics

Did you know that 90% of statistics are fraudulent? No? Well that's good because that’s not tru...

Share this article

07.00 21 Apr 2020


Futureproof Extra: Trusting Statistics



Share this article

07.00 21 Apr 2020


Did you know that 90% of statistics are fraudulent? No? Well that's good because that’s not true. 

As Benjamin Disraeli famously said “"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Except that he didn’t actually. That’s not true either.

What we're getting at is in this world of fake news, just what can we trust and how do we navigate through the sheer volume of numbers we read day in day out?

Paul Goodwin is Emeritus Professor at the University of Bath and Author of 'Something Doesn’t Add Up: Surviving Statistics in a Post-Truth World'. He joined Jonathan to discuss the world of statistics and how we use and abuse them.

Image: needpix.com


Read more about

Average Fake Information Lies Mean Misleading Figures Paul Goodwin Statistics University Of Bath

Related Episodes

How to do Stuff: Celebrate suc...

00:11:05

How to do Stuff: Celebrate success

The Hard Shoulder

00:11:05


Gardaí miss their target of ap...

00:08:43

Gardaí miss their target of appointing new road policing Gardaí in 2024

The Hard Shoulder

00:08:43


Minister James Lawless on Rent...

00:12:16

Minister James Lawless on Rent Tenancies Bill, pedestrianisation of College Green and whether student visa's are being used to access Ithe labour market

The Hard Shoulder

00:12:16


Olympian publicly asks for a s...

00:06:23

Olympian publicly asks for a second chance after cheating on Girlfriend. Do grand gestures work?

The Hard Shoulder

00:06:23