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How We’re Fooled By Statistics

Veritasium · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Data science & statisticsPsychology & human behavior

What it is

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.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters link it as the clearest short explanation of regression to the mean, especially for how it misleads people about feedback and statistics.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Veritasium explains it better than me.”

    Explains how statistics mislead.

    np422, 2015-03 · Strong recommendation · in “Speed Cameras and the City”

  2. “elucidated wonderfully in this Veritasium video[1]”

    Explains regression to the mean wonderfully.

    javajosh, 2014-08 · Recommendation · in “Set Up to Fail: How Bosses Create Their Own Poor Performers (1998) [pdf]”

  3. “Derek from Veritasium has a great video on this”

    Regression to the mean misleading coaches about praise and criticism.

    divan, 2025-04 · Recommendation · in “How to win an argument with a toddler”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: statistics, feedback, psychology, cognitive bias, veritasium

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