The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #92737 Message #2586382
Posted By: GUEST,Mr Red
11-Mar-09 - 10:55 AM
Thread Name: 9 out of 10 Muslims abhor London Bombing
Subject: RE: 9 out of 10 Muslims abhor London Bombing
9 out of 10 Muslims (or Northern Irish Catholics, or Hunt saboteurs , etc etc)
have to shout louder than the 1. And it never happens. Reasonable people put their case in a reasonable manner. Shouting ain't reason.
And we are surely adult enough in this forum to understand that 9 out of 10 is shorthand for "a significant majority of the whole". Statistics say what you want them to say because you and those you tell cannot understand gaussian distribution and standard deviation. And never think that to stand a remote chance of getting 1% accuracy you have to canvas 200 people min. And ask the right questions. There is a distinct bias (say 60/40 instead of 50/50) to say yes to any question.