YOU MAY have heard the saying “numbers never lie.” It seems reasonable enough. Generally, gathering data or statistics leads to the truth. If a baseball team manager needs to choose between two different players, he may compare numbers. Stats like batting average or on-base percentage measure players’ performance in games. So the manager can pick the player with the best performance.
In all sorts of sports, numbers help build the best teams possible. And in business, numbers and statistics typically guide major decisions. Numbers usually represent reality in a way that instinct, emotions, and hunches cannot. But not always.
Numbers may not lie, but people have been known to. And people are the ones responsible for gathering and analyzing numbers. During this process, people may lie on purpose. Or they…
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Muse: The Magazine Of Science, Culture, And Smart Laughs For Kids And Children (Digital) - 1 Issue, November/December 2018