Reading Evidence
Survivorship bias: look for the cases missing from a success story
A success story may omit the businesses, people or projects that did not remain visible. Ask who was counted before accepting its lesson.
CONTEXT FOR EVERYDAY CURIOSITY
media literacy
Reading the News
An opinion poll’s fieldwork dates matter more than its publication day
Place a poll’s interviews on the calendar before interpreting its headline, especially when an important event happened between fieldwork and publication.
Reading Public Data
Compare Rates per Person Before Ranking Places by Raw Totals
Raw totals and rates per person answer different questions. Use a small worked example to compare places without losing the population behind the number.
Reading the News
A Shortened Quote Needs the Sentence Around It
Check a shortened quotation against its surrounding words so an omission does not silently change the speaker’s meaning.
Reading the News
Provisional Figures Need a Date and a Route to the Revision
Provisional statistics can be useful without being final. Keep their release date, revision status, and comparison series visible when reading the news.
Reading research
Who Answered the Survey—and Who Never Saw It?
Read a survey headline by checking the intended population, recruitment method and missing voices before treating its percentage as a public verdict.
Understanding the numbers
An Average Can Be True and Still Hide the Story
Mean and median can tell different stories about the same figures. Use a small example to spot what an average includes—and what it hides.