In chapter 13 we read about misleading claims with numbers. Now this is described as vague, meaningless, or mistaken comparison. The book uses the example a town getting more violent because there were 12% more murders this year. What this number doesn't take into account is the fact that the town and tourist population may be growing which accounts for more murders. It could mean that murders are going down per 100,000 people even though it has gone up the past year. For example there could be 20 murders in a town of a million in comparison to 6 murders in a town of 25,000.
For a real life example I am going to talk about discounts you find in the mall. Some of them say 50% off clearance sale. Now they mislead you because when you go and look at the items, only a small fraction is 50% off. Usually these are bad clothes too that no one wants.
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Hey,
ReplyDeletePercentages can def be misleading. I was at the mall a couple of weeks ago and there was this sale at this store, everything 30% off. But when I went to the register they said 30% off your total purchase. I was thinking like on every item or something. The example you gave is true as well, they'll have signs 50-75% off but only on certain items. So number, percentages can def be misleading. And great examples too!