

Dennis the Denver dentist and Laura the Louisiana lawyer - neilc
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2005/08/dennis_the_denv.html

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whacked_new
Also for grades:
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071114111138.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071114111138.htm)

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TheSOB88
Interesting idea, but some of the interpretations are way off. The
Jerry/Walter thing is weird. Why would you compare the Dennises against a
group of similar size instead of just comparing the ratios betwen Dennises and
everyone? I mean, maybe people who were born in a certain time period were
more likely to both become dentists and be named Dennis.

It says "221 of these Dennises are "extra" dentists--choosing the profession
just based on their name." This statement is almost farcical. Even assuming
there are more dentists per Dennis than among normal people, the wording of
this sentence suggests there was no other reason for these people to choose to
be dentists. I think they must have skipped over some part of probability law.

~~~
Luc
You can consult the article itself instead of the description of it (always
the better option, especially when it comes to articles in non-specialist
newspapers etc.). It has a full description of their methodology and at first
glance doesn't seem to contain any 'doh!' mistakes.

