The thing about my way of teaching stats is that my cool, novel examples get old really fast. Like, pop culture is on a thirty-day cycle. Anyway, YEARS ago, 2014 to be exact, I blogged about illustrating bimodal data distributions using baby name data from the Social Security Administration. Specifically, when an older name comes back into vogue, it has a bimodal distribution when you plot time on the X axis. I stand by this example. However, all of the data illustrations come from 2014. When our traditionally aged college students were 6 or 7. Which makes this example feel a little stale. However, here is some data, courtesy of Redditor fevaah , showing old names that are back in vogue through 2025 ! And Eleanor, Violet, Nora, and Hazel are here, illustrating bimodal distributions for a new generation. If you used my old baby-name data, this is a quick, easy refresh for your lectures (or a fun new addition if you didn't). If this idea was help...
Geckoboard created a list of common statistical fallacies, including cherry picking, Simpson's paradox, gerrymandering, and many more.
Each fallacy comes with a brief description of the fallacy, references, a printable card for review/display, and drawing. They are kind of gorgeous and to the point and helpful.
Each fallacy comes with a brief description of the fallacy, references, a printable card for review/display, and drawing. They are kind of gorgeous and to the point and helpful.
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| https://www.geckoboard.com/learn/data-literacy/statistical-fallacies/sampling-bias/ |
Here is the downloadable card for the Regression Toward the Mean:
They even present all of their graphics as a free, downloadable poster.
My only peeve is that they use the term "Data Dredging" where I would have said "HARKing" or "Going on a fishing expedition". And that is just the tiniest of peeves, I think this is a good check list filled with images and concise descriptions that would look beautiful in a college professor's office, a stats class room, or anonymously sent to you Facebook friends who is ALWAYS posting politically charged examples of one of these fallacies. I dare you.
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| https://www.geckoboard.com/assets/regression-toward-the-mean.pdf |
My only peeve is that they use the term "Data Dredging" where I would have said "HARKing" or "Going on a fishing expedition". And that is just the tiniest of peeves, I think this is a good check list filled with images and concise descriptions that would look beautiful in a college professor's office, a stats class room, or anonymously sent to you Facebook friends who is ALWAYS posting politically charged examples of one of these fallacies. I dare you.