Systems Engineering by Ricardo Valerdi

May 2022

Combining data may result in the wrong conclusion

We often make decisions with data, but sometimes how we decide to group or separate the data could lead us to incorrect conclusions. One example of this is Simpson’s paradox, a statistical trend that appears to be present when data are considered separately but disappears or reverses when data are considered as a whole. This can happen in a variety of contexts such as business, medicine and in professional sports.


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