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“The results are both shocking and saddening.” Nearly 2/3 of young American adults didn’t know 6m Jews were killed in the Holocaust. theguardian.com/world/2020/sep

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· Sep 16, 2020

It’d be funny if it wasn’t serious. Here is another example, also from today, on how The Guardian reports statistics: twitter.com/nataliemj10/st

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Adam Nash

@adamnash

Sep 17, 2020

There are so many troubling numbers here, it’s not worth quibbling. The exact % doesn’t really matter. For example, only 65% think the holocaust happened and has been fairly described. 23% saying “not sure” isn’t a win.

Jesse Powell

@jespow

Sep 17, 2020

It’s an example of a bad and confusing question with answers that aren’t very valuable without additional info. “Not sure” which statement comes closest. “Not sure” if the numbers (from where?) have been “fair” (meaning what?) or exaggerated. Only 1% think it didn’t happen.

Adam Nash

@adamnash

Sep 17, 2020

Eye of the beholder on the quality of the phrasing. The right answer is to run multiple surveys in a wide variety of ways. But that 1% is false comfort. I t’s much easier to be agnostic than atheist, the latter requires certainty. There is likely a real issue here.

Jesse Powell

@jespow

Replying to

@adamnash

Could be. I would have answered “not sure” knowing what the numbers are because I am not keeping track of what others views are. I have no idea if people think the numbers are accurate or not.

6:03 AM · Sep 17, 2020Twitter for iPhone

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Always hard to tell how much we project our own interpretations on to surveys. 🤷‍♂️ BTW Congrats on the big news today! 🎉

Jesse Powell

@jespow

Sep 17, 2020

Yeah, it’s really difficult to get the language right. Same as constructing a good scientific study. When the language isn’t right, too vague/ambiguous, you have to wonder if it was intentional or not, and it leads to all sorts of interpretations of the results. Thank you!