Saturday, November 13, 2010

Misleading claims with numbers

There are a few different ways of having a misleading claim with numbers. One of these is called comparing apples and oranges. this is when someone compares a number of one item with a number of another item that has nothing to do with the first item. For example, I have two cats and my brother has 5 dogs. Who has more? This is too vague of a comparison because it does not say who has more of what? This makes this comparison completely meaningless. Another misleading claim with numbers is often used in advertisements in commercials or magazines. For example, on Pro Active commercials, they will say that 90 percent of people who use this product see results or get clear skin immediately. But this is a mistaken comparison. I do not know how many people they used in their comparison. If it was 90 out of 100 then I would most likely use the product and purchase it. But it is it 9 out of 10 people, it is not so appealing and might not think its worth my money.

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