domeet webmaster

Do you know that you can deceive people without lying?

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Wei Xizhi North” (ID :weixizhibei), author Wei Xi.

Lies can deceive people, but do you know that you can deceive people without lying?

Today I am going to talk about a kind of “real lie”. Every fact that this kind of lie says is true. Every number is correct, but it can successfully deceive us.

Now, the naked lie media and companies have not dared to use it brazenly, but today’s such “real lies” are full of people’s lives. Let’s first come to a few examples. a moment –

• My public number “Wei Xi Zhibei” once had an article that doubled my number of fans. Would you think this article is really good?

  In fact, that was my first post. Before I sent the article, my number of fans was 60. After I sent the article, I went to the circle of friends and the fan grew to 180, and the article was so mediocre that I later put it It was deleted!

• If a scout does not know Ding Junhui, then I edit a video – 30% of the footage inside is a good shot of Ding Junhui, and the remaining 70% is the lens of Ding Junhui’s mistake, then, the ball The investigation will definitely evaluate Ding Junhui’s skills.

• An employee reported to the boss: “Because of the trade war, the sales of our shoes have dropped by 20%.” Another employee reported to the boss: “Despite the trade war, the sales of our shoes have been saved. Eighty percent, is God the truth?

• A self-author of the media wrote: 2006 “Times of the Week” people of the year, 2008 moved the China Organizing Committee special award, do you think he has reached the top of the media pyramid? In fact, the 2006 People’s Weekly character is “You”, that is, all netizens; and 2018 moved the Chinese Organizing Committee’s special award to be “all Chinese”

  

• “There are 89 guns per 100 people in the United States. If you see this data, would you think that the flood of guns in the United States is extremely serious? It is simply hell on earth, but it is not saved; but you may not see another data. So worried – only 31% of families in the US have guns.

• New medical statistics show that a person’s life span is closely related to the size of the person’s adult palm. The specific performance is that the palm of the hand usually has a short life span, while the palm has a small life span; it is too strange! The truth is that men live longer than women, while men’s palms are usually larger than women;

• If I give you a group of data – the rate of progression to the city is 49.3%, and the rate of progression to the city is 40%, which school will you send your child to?

  Of course it is the city one! Sorry, you have chosen the wrong one! Take a look at the following table, whether it is liberal arts enrollment rate or science enrollment rate, the city has no second high school, but its overall enrollment rate is higher than the second, you are not mistaken, the data is so amazing!

  

• The average salary of all mayors in the United States is $62,000, while the deputy mayor is as high as $83,000. This number is strange, right? In fact, in many small cities in the United States, there is no deputy mayor, only a mayor with a low salary, and the city with a deputy mayor is a larger and more affluent city.

This picture, do you feel that this indicator has risen and fallen, and the overall performance is relatively stable?

But in fact, the real performance is doubled in 2020 compared to 2019!

The above case is the “true lie” summarized by Wei Xi.Nine types –

1. The public number is doubled – “small sample lies”;

2. Ding Junhui video – “Selective display of lies”;

3. Trade War Report – “Describe a tendency to lie”;

4. Time Weekly from the media – “Secret concept lie”;

5. The number of guns in the United States – “average lies”;

6. Palm size and longevity – “related as causal lies”;

7. Entrance rate selection – “Simpson’s paradox lies”;

8. The deputy mayor’s salary – “inappropriate comparison of lies”;

9. Indicator trend – “visual misleading lies”

The following magician will bring you together to uncover the true face behind these lie–

One, a small sample lie

“I have only received 2 traffic tickets in the past 9 years.” Do you think that I am a driver who obeys the traffic rules very much?

However, the fact is that I got my driver’s license last Wednesday and started driving.

Small sample lie refers to trying to describe the overall situation with a small sample that does not represent the whole. This is a typical way of lying based on real data, common in many practical situations –

• Company earnings: We often see an Internet company’s earnings report saying that its innovative business has a 300% increase in revenue last quarter, but it won’t tell you the exact number because this specific number may The income has increased from 10,000 to 40,000;

• Job Resume: I received a lot of resume descriptions on “Responsible for doubling the number of users of a function during the XX project.” I usually continue to ask, “What is the specific number of users of this function? “” Job seekers often answer: “Sorry, due to the confidentiality agreement signed with the company, the specific data is not convenient to disclose.”

• Government propaganda: The Monaco government has announced that they are the first country in the world to complete 5G100% coverage. Will you really be at the forefront of communications technology? In fact, Monaco is located in the middle of France, with an area of ​​only 1.98 square kilometers.

Note: Small sample lie is not limited to exaggerating multiples with small samples, but also expanding the whole with small samples.Scope, the following three sentences, everyone feels –

1. Since the defeat of the Korea-Japan World Cup in 2002, the Chinese team’s unbeaten record in the World Cup has continued for 17 years

2. Throughout the long history of the World Cup, the Chinese team has only lost three times in total

3. Even the world’s strong teams like Brazil have only beat the Chinese team once in the World Cup.

Second, selectively display lies

Selective display is the most common method of deceiving people with facts, not even one, because it is too common. There is a word in English called “Half-truth”, that is, the part that shows you is true. , but it is only part of the facts. The following picture is a good illustration of the selective display –

I don’t usually read book reviews from the New York Times on the title page. Why?

Because I know that a common operation of booksellers is to pick out the good parts of the New York Times book review, even if the entire book review is negative about the book:

For example, the book review reads, “This is a novel that is fascinating in the plot, but its vulgar values ​​and contempt for women can only make it a third-rate work…”, the bookseller will only print on the cover. “This is a novel that is fascinating in the plot” – The New York Times, so everyone should be wary of book reviews from foreign media, especially those with only one sentence.

In 2007, Colgate was ordered by the Bureau of Advertising Standards (ASA) to ban the use of the phrase “more than 80% of dentists recommend Colgate” because it is clearly misleading and the data itself is independent and accurate. But it gives consumers the feeling that “the remaining 20% ​​of dentists recommend other brands”, and in fact it may be – “90% of dentists recommend Tian Qi” (I casually said that the report is indeed Dentists recommend more than one brand)

Looking at another example, some pharmaceutical manufacturers may say in the promotion that “our stomach medicine does not cause side effects on the stomach for a long time compared with other stomach medicines of the same type”, it claims to be true. But what it doesn’t tell you is that it has no negative effect on the stomach, but on the liver.

Why do many people say that Baidu’s financial news is going to Tencent, and Tencent’s financial report is going to Baidu, because the news posted on its own website usually only shows the positive results in the financial report.