You have all seen these nice statistics that prove a point, right? They look great, there's a long url mentioned at the bottom and they seem to prove what you already thought. Great!
However, more often than not you are mislead. Have you ever actually followed the provided link or did you never 'have time' to actually do just that tiny little bit of research but shared the graph anyway, 'proving' your point to others on social media?
Here's a fine example. Produced by https://twitter.com/HaraldofW. Harald is the only person in the world who produced this graph. When you follow the links he provided you find some interesting information. Not on the number of deaths in the Nordic countries, as Harald claims, but on different numbers in...Canada.
Politicians and their followers like statistics: they are usually easy to read and you don't have to spend a few minutes reading a whole article or - gods forbid! - spend five minutes of your precious time to do even the least bit of research. Like type a search string into Google and see what comes out.
Here's how people like Harald produce their fake statistics:
If you look for Harald's 'data source' (which has a nice scientific ring to it) you still don't find the numbers he invented to put in this graph. But it takes you a couple of minutes to find that out. Harald (and people like him) are relying on people's natural ability to be lazy and don't think for themsves but simply copy the information they bet their lives on from people that seem thrustworthy. Well, you don't have to trust me but do you really trust Harald?
Speaking of Harald: I took the liberty of creating a graph with him as topic.
Should you trust a former famous tennis player, rather than scientists?
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