The funniest thing about this joke is that with just a bit more education, the audience would be able to recognise it isn't true.
Half of all people are dumber than median.
If you've got 7 billion people with equal intelligence and then 1 genius comes along, you've suddenly got 7 billion people who are below average and 1 who's above.
This is why national salaries are listed by the median value and not the average; the 1% drag the average up so it's not useful for comparing anything.
The funniest thing about this joke is that with just a bit more education, the audience would be able to recognise it isn't true.
No, with more education, it would still be true.
In most population statistics a mean and an average are going to be roughly the same, as most distributions are roughly normal in large enough populations.
This is true for things like intelligence and height.
Your example of why mean and average aren't the same is a fringe case that is used to highlight the difference between the two. In practice though, they'll be functionally the same in a lot of cases.
Sure, but it's a joke about a study. You wouldn't get a study that plays fast and loose with that kind of language.
It's just an opportunity here to go from a lol on Reddit to tacking on a bit of statical literacy that could be helpful for average people tackling popular media headlines.
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u/nosoupforyou Dec 18 '19
George Carlin did a study and found that half of all people are dumber than average.