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Kaiser Fung is a business statistician, and author of Numbers Rule
Your World
. He blogs at Junk Charts.

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Does Standing Lead to Weight Loss?

STATBUSTERS

A study says that standing for a quarter of the day reduces obesity—but cause and effect are not so clear.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Dec 07, 2015

How Effective Are Anti-Smoking Ads?

Basic Math

Joel Keller recently ranted about ‘inefficient’ anti-smoking ad campaigns. Here’s what he gets wrong about the bottom line.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Nov 23, 2015

How Big Pharma Games the Placebo Effect

Statbusters

Randomized controlled trials are supposed to be the gold standard of drug testing—but companies can easily tweak the system in their favor.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Nov 03, 2015

Ta-Nehisi, David Brooks, and Street Code

WAR OF WORDS

Brooks’s belligerent column about Coates’s new book could just as well have been talking about his own theory of journalism.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Oct 19, 2015

Debunking the Great Selfie Death Myth

STATBUSTERS

When it comes to which is more deadly—selfies or shark attacks—no analysis would have been better than a bad analysis.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Oct 05, 2015

Is Google Rigging 2016? Not So Fast.

Artificial Simulation

A claim in a recent Politico article that undecided voters can ‘easily’ be shifted by ‘20 percent or more’ seems ridiculous on its face. We dug a little deeper.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Sep 21, 2015

There Are Infinite Types of Drunk People

Statbusters

A study identifying four types of drinkers messes up its science.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Sep 07, 2015

How the Media #Fails Basic Math

STATBUSTERS

Debunking China’s ‘4,000 air-pollution deaths a day’ myth and other media math flubs.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Aug 24, 2015

The Truth About Post-Ferguson Gun Deaths

STATBUSTERS

How media bias skews the facts on gun violence and police line-of-duty deaths since Ferguson.

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Aug 10, 2015

Banks Want Robots to Do Their Hiring

Statbusters

Can software perform better than humans on matters of hiring and retaining employees?

Andrew Gelman, Kaiser Fung | Published Jul 27, 2015

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