Public "wrong about almost everything"

Russ · 12-05-2014, 13:03

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...s-8697821.html

Some interesting figures..

Gary L · 12-05-2014, 13:19

'some 82 per cent of the population think David Cameron is the dimmest Prime Minister the UK has ever had. when the figure is actually 98 per cent.'

Ignitionnet · 12-05-2014, 13:19

The most shocking thing is that this is news. We as a country, in my lifetime, used to look across the channel and consider the United States to be a bit, well, thick.

Sadly those times have gone as we've become a bunch of reality TV obsessed morons swallowing chapter and verse whatever media outlet we've attached ourselves to tells us with no attempt to find things our for ourselves beyond the latest salacious information on whichever talentless gimp is the tabloid darling for the day.

We have never had so much information so easily available. How bizarre we've become a bunch of ill-informed morons.

Gary L · 12-05-2014, 13:25

I'd describe the majority of us as cattle. sheep even.

but I'd mostly describe the majority of us as lost souls without someone to tell us how to live our lives.

I get your point about reality TV. that has had one huge effect on us.
and there's more and more coming our way.

Qtx · 12-05-2014, 13:47

The poll of 1000 people is too small a sample really and easily skewed by people living in areas where there are above average figures.

The government pushes a lot of the bad information itself through the media, to sway public opinion. The Tories under Cameron were the first to set up a psychological warfare department under the name Behavioural Insights Team, commonly referred to as his Nudge Unit as it was intended to work on ways of making people think a certain way.

**Chris** · 12-05-2014, 13:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qtx

The poll of 1000 people is too small a sample really and easily skewed by people living in areas where there are above average figures.

The government pushes a lot of the bad information itself through the media, to sway public opinion. The Tories under Cameron were the first to set up a psychological warfare department under the name Behavioural Insights Team, commonly referred to as his Nudge Unit as it was intended to work on ways of making people think a certain way.

A properly weighted sample of 1,000 individuals typically has a margin of error around +/-3pc. The sample presented here is not too small.

nomadking · 12-05-2014, 14:03

The supposed "true" figures are a classic example of being wrong.
Eg Benefit fraud is the identified fraud. As certain instances are found to have go on for years, there are many more cases waiting to be found.
Using UK wide figures for population is misleading as it includes areas such as The Shetlands and Land's End which are not exactly average composition.
Do the teen pregnancy figures include abortions?
How about including housing benefit, council tax and tax credits with the JSA figures, in order to provide the true cost of working age benefits?

MetaWraith · 12-05-2014, 15:47

This somehow reminds me of the saying
"98% of statistics are made up on the spot"

Qtx · 12-05-2014, 15:55

Lies, damn lies and statistics

arcimedes · 12-05-2014, 16:00

I think its not helped that the TV news services always go for the attention grabbing headline. When you dig deeper you often find that the headline was at odds with the rest of the article. Something to do with attention span?

solitaire · 12-05-2014, 16:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qtx

Lies, damn lies and statistics

You beat me to it!

**Hugh** · 12-05-2014, 16:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qtx

Lies, damn lies and statistics

So does that mean all the polling figures for the upcoming Euro elections aren't worth anything?

Mick Fisher · 12-05-2014, 16:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh

So does that mean all the polling figures for the upcoming Euro elections aren't worth anything?

Probably

Qtx · 12-05-2014, 16:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh

So does that mean all the polling figures for the upcoming Euro elections aren't worth anything?

The person voting knows if they are going to vote one way or another at the time asked. Compared to asking someone their perceptions of something which they don't know, it's like comparing apples and oranges.

Nice try though

Ignitionnet · 12-05-2014, 16:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qtx

Lies, damn lies and statistics

The stats are fine, it's which ones are presented and the manner in which they are presented that's the problem.

For example, over 10% of our entire economic output/GDP is 'imputed rents'. That is the rent that homeowners would pay if they didn't own their properties, also known as bovine excreta, hence why governments like high houses, they make GDP look better.

Then there's that GDP itself even with that is a load of pap. The best measure is GDP per capita, how productive we are per person, which is nowhere near where it was pre-2008.

Or that the government proudly claim to have gotten banks lending again, before noting that net lending to businesses has been dropping during their entire term and only mortgage debt has been growing.

Or that the government claim the recovery isn't based on debt while noting that the ONS statistics showed a swap of public deficits for private ones.

Statistics are good things.