Member-only story
Statistical Ambassador: Year One
Last June, I was selected to be a Statistical Ambassador for the Royal Statistical Society. The misunderstanding of statistics can have dire consequences, such as: people under-estimating savings needed for retirement, the mis-evaluation of assets during the 2008 financial crisis, and imprisonments based on faulty interpretation of probabilities.
The Statistical Ambassador programme exists so more people can talk to policymakers, researchers, journalists and the public about statistics. We received media training and had professional photos taken. This article is about what I have done in my first year as a Statistical Ambassador.
The Moon Landings and Lotteries
ITV News claimed that a recent survey suggested that “52% of Brits think the Moon landings from 1969–1972 were faked”. Independently, I investigated this Atomik Research survey result: finding that it was based on an unweighted internet panel sample — with the question using check-boxes. With the assistance of the Market Research Society, I published the data tables for that survey.
The failure to tick a checkbox on a question about what “do you believe in” was…
