How We’re Fooled By Statistics

Veritasium

Why leaders watch it

Explains regression to the mean, which leads leaders to misread why rewards or punishment seem to work.

A short Veritasium video explaining regression to the mean and how ignoring it leads to wrong conclusions about punishment versus reward, medical treatments and sports streaks. It uses the example of flight instructors who believed criticism works better than praise.

Takeaways

• Extreme results tend to move toward average
• Punishment seems to work due to regression
• Be careful attributing causes to a single result

Topics: Decision making & mental models

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