“There are three kinds 

of lies –
lies, damned lies, and
statistics.”
-Mark Twain 
Team 9
• There are multiple biases leading to a statistical error: poorly formed questions, badly defined terms, too
little data, non-comparable perimeters… There are many pitfalls.
Simpson’s Paradox
• When two plots of the same data lead to different conclusions.

Small Stone Large Stone Combined

Treatment A 93% (81/87)  73% (192/263) 78% (273/350)
Treatment B   87% (234/270)  69% (55/80) 83% (289/350)

Which treatment should I

consider for my kidney stone?
Ex of this paradox:
• Unemployment rate mentioned by Macron in 2017
 The world Map of COVID-19
• Who is really infected?  What is the real definition of the virus?
We are not all affected in the same way? (symptomatic vs
asymptomatic)

• Are the numbers accurate?  limited # of tests per day in each

country *

• Is the comparison between the countries/day accurate?

 each country releases the total number /day at a certain time +

difference in time zone **

 Some countries only do the tests for symptomatic citizens

How to Manipulate Numbers  Politics
• Macron vs Le pen
Sources

•Faut-il croire les statistiques ? - Brigitte Bidegaray-Fesquet

•https://www.lefigaro.fr/la-difficile-interpretation-des-chiffres-de-la-pandemie-20200326

•https://www.bfmtv.com/politique/elections/presidentielle/comment-les-chiffres-peuvent-etre-manipules
-l-exemple-de-la-presidentielle_AN-201801040075.html

•https://analyticsindiamag.com/understanding-simpsons-paradox-and-its-impact-on-data-analytics/