More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding

Re:More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic stat... by defrost on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @07:55AM (#49447428)

Congrats for having a shot, sadly that doesn't answer the questions posed in the slightest.

Again, why does the GP assume that a full half are distinctly lower than "average understanding" ? Why the assumption that multiple numbers cannot share an average understanding?

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Re:More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic stat... by d1sxeyes on Thursday August 27, 2026 @12:05AM (#49459564)

It was a joke, you are, of course, technically correct, there’s no requirement for the mean and median to be the same.

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Re:More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic stat... by defrost on Thursday August 27, 2026 @12:11AM (#49459601)

Fair point, in my time zone it was late, I was crabby, and there was a surrounding context of "bad statistics" comments.

That said,

If the mean and median were the same your statement would still not be always true. For more than one reason.

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Re:More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic stat... by d1sxeyes on Thursday August 27, 2026 @01:35PM (#49468355)

No harm done :)

I’m interested, in what cases would it not be true if we assume “average” here to be “median”? I can only think of one: if we consider “understanding” to be discrete rather than continuous.

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