Cherry Picking Data: Learn to overcome this common logical fallacy

Complete and reliable data is an incredibly powerful tool, but when data is incomplete or taken out of context, it can easily be used for the wrong reasons. In this video, I explain how you can recognise and overcome the problems caused when people cherry-pick data.
For resources to improve your understanding of the concepts covered in this video, check out my store on Teachers Pay Teachers at this link:
www.teacherspayteachers.com/S...
And the direct link for this video's resource:
www.teacherspayteachers.com/P...
You can also find more resources for teaching and learning science at my website:
www.thesciencelens.com
Thanks so much to the following people whose work helped me make this video:
Information References
ABC News. “We Fact Checked Anthony Albanese on Australia's Contribution to Ukraine. Here's What We Found.” ABC News, ABC News, 12 Aug. 2022, www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-1....
Alumit, Mariel. “14m Trees Have Been Cut down in Scotland to Make Way for Wind Farms.” Energy News Beat, 1 Sept. 2022, energynewsbeat.co/14m-trees-h....
Bol, David. “14m Trees Have Been Cut down in Scotland to Make Way for Wind Farms.” HeraldScotland, HeraldScotland, 29 Feb. 2020, www.heraldscotland.com/news/1....
“Cherry Picking Data - Don't Get Fooled by Misleading Statistics.” Aspect Market Research, 9 Dec. 2019, aspectmr.com/cherry-picking-d....
Clarke, Osborne. “Colgate's '80% of Dentists Recommend' Claim under Fire.” Marketinglaw, 19 June 2015, marketinglaw.osborneclarke.co....
“Colgate Censured over Advert.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 21 Jan. 2007, www.reuters.com/article/uk-br....
Houser, Adam. “Scotland Cut down 14 Million Trees to Make Way for Wind Turbines.” CFACT, 22 Nov. 2021, www.cfact.org/2021/11/22/scot....
“The Myth of the 97% Climate Change Consensus.” CFACT, 4 June 2014, www.cfact.org/2014/05/30/the-....
“UK | Colgate Warned over '80%' Boast.” BBC News, BBC, 17 Jan. 2007, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/62....
“Ukraine Support Tracker - A Database of Military, Financial and Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine.” Kiel Institute, www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-ag....
Music Credits
‘Inspirational Background’
Music by Denys Kyshchuk from Pixabay: pixabay.com/users/audiocoffee...
‘Irreducible’
Music by ComaStudio from Pixabay: pixabay.com/users/comastudio-...
If you like the intro track, you should consider signing up to Yrii Semchyshyn's Patreon at - / yuriisemchyshyn
Video Background
‘Space’
Video by Tomislav Jakupec from Pixabay: pixabay.com/users/tommyvideo-...
Image of Anthony Albanese
“File:Anthony Albanese Portrait (Cropped).Jpg - Wikimedia Commons.” Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....
Thumbnail Image
Red Cherry Fruit
Photo by Lisa Fotios: www.pexels.com/photo/red-cher...

[@Grace_Piano]

Another great video Luke! You should really have more subscribers! I liked the real world examples you gave. Keep up the good work! 😊

[@thesciencelens]

Ah you're too kind :) Building the channel is taking a lot of work and sometimes it can feel like a grind, but comments like yours remind me why I started the it so I really appreciate you reaching out!

[@illusionzfg]

Great content thank you sir.

[@thesciencelens]

Thanks for watching!

[@lanep2023]

2 rules I have. 1- What is the time span? Can you expand it into a century? 2 centuries? 2- In graphing data, is the y axis set at zero, or just part of its scale. Non zero graphs can make the mundane exciting.

[@thesciencelens]

Hi Lane. I totally agree. I always encourage my students to extrapolate the graphs that they create. It helps them consider the limitations of their data and think about what could happen if they change the scale of their experiment. Your comment about time spans is interesting, too. It reminds me about William Macaskill's ideas about longtermism.

[@randharrisx]

Let us say, it is claimed that 35k civilians were bombed to death, 75% of which were women and children. Can we dismiss these claims as a mere drop in the bucket of human population, especially in the larger span of cumulative human history? we can easily counter by saying it's dishonest to cherry pick such numbers and even go on to say such low number of deaths don't amount to much to warrant any attention. Also, we can even go farther and say the perpetrators, historically lost many more, so cry more as you cherry pick more?

[@thesciencelens]

I'm not sure I agree with you that this would be cherry picking data. Can you clarify a little more what you mean?