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Posted

Often you will hear stories in which injuries are clumped together in such a way as to make serious injuries seem much more common than they are. Here is a made-up, slightly exaggerated example: 

 

47% of students in the South report that they have been violently assaulted, bullied or teased. 

 

Sounds like a very dire situation, but if one looks at the data: 

 

Violent assault - 0.1% 

Bullied - 4% 

Teased - 43% 

 

So while the numbers are true, they are, at the same time, somewhat misleading. Does this sort of 'fallacy' have a name?

Posted

It sort of falls under the fallacy of accident, due to the use of misleading statistics. That said, it's not a perfect match but the situation you're describing is very well documented. I just don't know if it has its own name.

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