Robert Reich's CEO Pay Chart Is Wrong. Here's the Real Math.
The former U.S. labor secretary presents economic data in deceptive ways.
Statistics
How Statistics Become Propaganda
Aaron Brown discusses how research gets distorted, why sensational claims spread so quickly, and how to think more critically about the numbers behind the headlines.
A Flawed Minimum Wage Study Shows How Bad Stats Get Turned Into Policy Gospel
A 2024 paper claimed higher minimum wages don't kill jobs. It was statistically significant—and almost certainly misleading.
In 2024, Trump Rejected Numbers Showing a Homicide Drop As a 'Lie.' Now He Is Bragging About Them.
While running against Kamala Harris, Trump claimed homicides were "skyrocketing," disregarding the data contradicting that assertion.
The Trump Administration Is Taking Credit for a Long-Running Murder Decline
2025 is on track to have the largest drop in the murder rate in recorded history.
What the Media Gets Wrong About Crime
Crime analyst Jeff Asher explains the historic decline in murders, why Americans distrust crime statistics, and what the data actually show about public safety.
How To Speed Up the Search for Cures Through a Change in Probability Theory
It seems likely the FDA would do well to accept more Bayesian reasoning in medical research.
Our Obsession With Statistical Significance Is Ruining Science
A forgotten Guinness brewer's alternative approach could have prevented 100 years of mistakes in medicine, economics, and more.
The Conspiracy Theorists Who Claim Kamala Harris Really Won in 2024
Echoes of Trump's 2020 delusions are reborn in blue.
Trump Bashed Other Countries for Their Immigrant Crime Rates. Here's Why He Didn't Mention the U.S.
Trump railed against migrant crime abroad but skipped U.S. stats—because immigrants here are locked up far less often than native-born Americans.
Firing the Data-Collectors
Plus: IVF about-face, Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down, and more...
There's No Evidence That Climate Change Has Increased the Rat Population
A widely reported study relies on weak data, inaccurate statistics, and misleading references to support its claims.
Does Legalizing Sex Work Increase Human Trafficking?
A go-to study for advocates of restricting sex work used a flawed economic model and abysmal data.
How Many Americans Have Died of COVID-19?
Adding up COVID-19's toll since Donald Trump declared a national emergency five years ago.
Is Science Rigged for the Rich?
A recent study claiming inequality of opportunity in the sciences commits statistical and conceptual errors that make its findings meaningless.
Does Weed Cause Strokes and Heart Attacks?
A widely cited study commits so many egregious statistical errors that it's a poster child for junk science.
Preliminary FBI Data: Crime Steeply Declined in Early 2024
While the data is far from perfect, if the overall trend holds, violent crime could be back to pre-COVID levels by the end of the year.
Academics Use Imaginary Data in Their Research
Academia values the appearance of truth over actual truth.
CDC Vastly Overestimated U.S. Maternal Death Rates, Says New Study
Maternal health care has actually improved substantially in many areas.
The New York Times Misrepresented a Shoddy Study Claiming Private Equity Worsened Hospital Care
Researchers trumpeted a statistically insignificant finding and attempted to explain away contrary data. The Gray Lady further garbled the evidence.
The Wildly Misleading Statistic at the Center of the FTC's Antitrust Case Against Amazon
Lina Khan says this number is crucial to understanding Amazon's monopoly power, but she's either confused or lying about what it means.
The Shady Statistics Behind the War on Painkillers
The government has doubled down on failed policies, citing deeply flawed studies and misrepresenting data.
Will the Government Shutdown Result in 'Hunger for Millions' as Reuters Claims?
When you use incorrect stats to bolster your claims, as Reuters did, all kinds of foolish conclusions follow.
CDC Inflated Data About Teen Girls and Sexual Assault
Plus: Lack of independence could cause childhood mental health issues, Biden follows Trump playbook on TikTok, and more...
FBI Reports Dubious 'Trend' of Rideshare Driver Kidnappings
Plus: Pandemic learning loss, German weed legalization, and more...
Is Crime Getting Better or Worse? We Don't Really Know.
The FBI changed the way it compiles data, and reporting law-enforcement agencies have yet to catch up.
Did Murders Rise in 2021? No One Knows.
Plus: Court says DACA is illegal, Colorado baker appeals gender transition cake ruling, and more...
Guns Aren't a Public Health Issue
A deeply flawed documentary by the gray lady unwittingly makes the case for why the CDC shouldn't be studying gun violence.
Number of American Mass Murders Relatively Steady Since 2006
Plus: A surge in female voter registrations, eminent domain in North Carolina, and more...
Lies, Damned Lies, and …
How a truly ridiculous statistical notion played its part in the January 6 uprising
Do Studies Show Gun Control Works? No.
Out of 27,900 research publications on gun laws, only 123 tested their effects rigorously.
Survey Finds No Rise in Anti-Asian Violence, Assaults Declined in 2020
Some encouraging results from the 2020 National Crime Victimization Survey
Do We Really Need New Anti-Asian Hate Crime Laws?
A holistic look at the data shatters the narrative about bias-based violence.
Statistics, and How the World Works
A surprising number of people seem to believe that the "improbability" that Biden could have won (in a fair election) is evidence that he didn't win (in a fair election). It isn't.
Prominent Researchers Say a Widely Cited Study on Wearing Masks Is Badly Flawed
"Masks matter. So does good science. Let's do both."
Critics Say a Pair of California Antibody Studies Contain Critical Statistical Errors That Produced Implausible Results
Too many false positives, nonrandom study population, and infection fatality rates out of whack with other data, critics claim.
No, Russian Bots Didn't Cause Trump's Poll Numbers To Increase 1 Percent Per 25K Retweets
Blaming Trump's election on the magical power of Russian Twitter bots is seductive because it excuses Americans for electing an obviously unqualified candidate.
How To Crush 'the Tyranny of Metrics'
Historian Jerry Z. Muller says we waste too much time fixating on measurements that lead us astray.
Foggy Sex Trafficking Stats Pop Up in the Bay Area
Did San Francisco really see a 170 percent "spike in human trafficking" last year?
Stop Letting People Lie to You About Hate Crime and Human Trafficking Spikes
Government statistics often show more reports of both. That doesn't mean either is on the rise.
Are American Workers Getting Shafted?
Think labor's share of America's economic output has been plunging? Think again.
No, There Haven't Been 18 School Shootings This Year
It trivializes a brutal crime to inflate the count this way. Cut it out.
15 Times Major Media Outlets Used a Statistic about Plastic Straws Based on Research by a 9-Year-Old
A number's popularity does not prove its accuracy.
Is That Poll That Found College Students Don't Value Free Speech Really 'Junk Science'? Not So Fast
Or how writing about survey methodology can go wrong fast
Human-Trafficking Arrests Are Very Rare in Most States
The exceptions in 2016 were Minnesota and Texas, according to newly released FBI data.
No Rise in Hate-Crime Rate Since 2004
"Hate crimes" suspected to be motivated by racial bias have dropped, but those perceived to be motivated by gender bias nearly doubled.
Do Libertarian Voters Actually Exist? Yes, and in Droves [Reason Podcast]
Cato's polling director Emily Ekins says as many as one in five voters can be identified as libertarian.
