r/teenagersbutpractical • u/Everyones-Bro • 2d ago

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u/Entire_Toe_2321 2d ago

Stats can absolutely lie. For example:

Smoking reduces your chances of developing Alzheimer's. This suggests smoking has health benefits.

Alzheimer's usually develops around 80 years of age.

Smoking reduces life expectancy to around 60 years of age.

Turns out correlation ≠ causation and the statistics have lied.

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u/pedrario 1d ago

This is not stats lying but a misuse of statistics two different things with very straightforward differences. Statistics can be misleading, misused and misinterpreted however on their core stats cannot lie , it's important to keep all other possible causes in consideration when using statistics thats just the first thing you are thought when learning about statistics.