Tale #1
"The Russian news agency TASS reported that in a car race today the Russians
came in second, while the US team came in next to last."
Sounds like the Russians did pretty good, while the US team stank, right?
They forgot to mention that there were only two cars in the race.
Tale #2
Two group of friends talking about the 2000 presidential election.
In the first group, there are 3 friends, two voting for Lamar Alexander, and
one for G.W. Bush. One of Alexander's supporters changes his minds and
decides to vote for Bush instead.
Alexander's percentage has dropped from 66% to 33%, a 50% decrease.
Bush's percentage has risen from 33% to 66%, a 100% increase.
In the second group, there are 30 friends, 20 voting for Lamar Alexander,
and 10 for G.W. Bush. One of Alexander's supporters changes his minds and
decides to vote for Bush instead.
Alexander's persentage has dropped from 66% to 63%, less than a 1% decrease.
Bush's percentage has raised from 33% to 37%, a 1.12% increase.
In each case, one person changed their mind, but the effect on the
percentages was greatly affected by the sample size.
Tale #3
A certain sickness is found in 10 out of 100 formula-fed children, and only
5 out of 100 breastfed children.
You can either accept the formula-fed rate as normal and say that
breastfeeding "reduces the risk of the disease by 50%." Or, to put it
another way, breastfeeding "cuts the risk in half."
Or you can accept the breastfed rate as normal and say that formula-feeding
"increases the risk of the disease by 100%." Or, to put it another way,
formula-feeding "doubles the risk."
Notice the subtle, but distinctive difference in your perceptions of formula
vs. breast when you use one way of phrasing it versus the other. This is
one of the main points of Diane Wiessinger's excellent article from JHL
1996, "Watch Your Language." We should also be holding up breastfeeding as
the norm, as the standard, and looking at how bottle-feeding increases the
risk of disease.
Kathy Dettwyler
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