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Features Australia

Odds are they aren’t

Today’s politicians ignore statistical probabilities

6 June 2020

9:00 AM

6 June 2020

9:00 AM

People aren’t good at thinking about probabilities. Our brains didn’t evolve to think that way and so you have to learn to do so. My first degree was in mathematics and my favourite class was probability. It was so counter-intuitive. I still recall the time the professor walked in and asked us ‘how many people do you need in a room to have a 50-50 chance of two of them sharing the same birthday (not the same year, but the day of the year)?’.

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