Screw the facts - a good story always wins

It turns out we humans are pretty poor at statistical analysis. No shock there right? An Ipsos MORI survey for the Royal Statistical Society and King's College London released today shows just how wrong public opinion can be on social issues such as crime, benefit fraud and immigration. Looking at the data from the survey it seems the general public wildly overestimate 'fear' issues like the crime rate, 'threat to status quo' issues like immigration and 'judgment' issues like teen pregnancy. Here's just a few of our top ten misconceptions: read more