It’s the thing. And it addresses how media and people forget about the actual statistics, and focus on the White Hot Bright Light.

• A study by Gelman, Fagan, and Kiss
• A study by Freyer
• A counterpoint to the Freyer study by Feldman
• A study by Sadler, Corell, Park, and Judd
• An interesting study by Ross, one “interesting” only because it uses methods I use professionally every week

What’s striking is that people have apparently forgotten that Statistics, as a field and a profession, was created principally as a vehicle for betterment of society. Not only was this true of creative originators like Florence Nightingale, but the very idea of creating mortality tables for mutual insurance companies.