2. PEOPLE ARE POOR AT MATHS
Most countries have extremely low
numeracy levels, wherein slightly
over 50% of the population is
comfortable with basic maths.
These divides society into 2 groups,
those who are comfortable with
numbers and those who aren’t.
3. BLISSFUL UNAWARENESS
Since people think intuitively rather than
statistically, their estimations about things
such as teenage pregnancy rates etc. are
completely off the mark.
This deviation was explored by Daniel
Kanehman, who wrote about how people
arrive on decisions and opinions intuitively,
in accordance with their personal biases.
4. EXAMPLES
People thought there were 24 muslims
per 100 Britons, whilst in reality there
were 5.
Saudis perceived about 25 in a 100
people to be obese, while, in reality it
is closer to 75 per 100.
6. NO
Even though there clues about the
condition and characteristics of a local
populace, people’s guesses about
these were way off.
People are disproportionately affected
by their own heuristics.
8. STATISTICS = MATHEMATICS? NO.
Statistics can’t merely be reduced to
mathematics, since, not only is it the
science of uncertainty, it is also the
science of us humans.
It shows us how we associate ourselves
to our groups and whether we are
really accurate in that association.
9. PEOPLE HAVE UNFOUNDED OPINIONS
It was clear, after the quiz, that even
the most intellectual of people are
affected to a great extent by their
own biases.
This becomes problematic because
people’s world view is fundamentally
different from what the world really
is.
11. DECISION MAKING
Managers should try their best to base
their decisions off of objective
realities rather than their own
misconstrued & biased versions of it.
Thus, it is highly important for them to
be aware of the real stats before they
make any business decision.
12. ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
Rather than relying on qualitative
virtue signalling about the supremacy
of their products, advertisers should
use objective statistics to help people
realise how much better the product is
from their competitors.
13. UNDERSTANDING EMPLOYEE BASE
Rather than relying on their own
perceptions of the background, age,
ethnicity etc. of their employee base,
managers should look at objective
statistics.
14. These stats can then be used to make
insights into what the employee base
actually is.
These can then be used to tailor the
office space to accommodate and
motivate employees to perform better.
