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In reply to the discussion: On the Criticism of Elizabeth Warren for Publicizing her DNA Test Results [View all]dsc
(52,160 posts)29. Her biggest problem was the rank innumeracy of the press
The press used the mean to cast her claim dismissively (ie she only had a little more NA blood than the mean) when the median is what matters. To see my point, imagine you have 100 people, 2 are 100% NA, 1 has 1/64 NA blood, and the rest have none. The median of that set is clearly 0. The mean is 200 + 1.5625 = 201.5625/100 or 2.015625. Now the person who is 1/64 is under the mean but that doesn't mean they have less NA blood than the typical person (in point of fact they have more NA blood than 97 out of the 100 people) but they do have less than the mean amount of NA blood. I exaggerated the numbers but you get the idea.
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On the Criticism of Elizabeth Warren for Publicizing her DNA Test Results [View all]
Time for change
Dec 2018
OP
"But I can't really blame her for not being able to predict that ahead of time"
Awsi Dooger
Dec 2018
#11
DNA tests can be revealing. I have a great grandmother who was shunned in her
McCamy Taylor
Dec 2018
#5
I believe that our country is in dire need of people willing to wrestle with the radioactive pig
Time for change
Dec 2018
#17
I thought the criticism, especially the criticism from some Native Americans,
PoindexterOglethorpe
Dec 2018
#31