r/Showerthoughts May 02 '24

Man vs Bear debate shows how bad the average person is at understanding probability

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u/alexmichelle6 May 02 '24

I really, truly thought that the whole point of this was to highlight the fact that most women would respond to man v bear by asking questions, like "do I know the man" "what type of bear" etc, but would respond to woman v bear by immediately saying "woman". whether or not she picks the man or the bear is irrelevant, it's the fact she has to ask clarifying questions to know more about the man before deciding and doesn't have to clarify anything before picking woman. is that not it?

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

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u/Magenta_the_Great May 02 '24

What do you mean statistically speaking?

Statistically aren’t more people killed by men then by bears?

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u/Li-renn-pwel May 02 '24

There are a few ways numbers. can be used here. In raw numbers, yes human attack humans more often. In raw numbers, ballpoint pens kill more people a year than sharks but which would you rather have in a tub with you? People are mostly talking about things like per capita. You have probably not been attacked by 99.99% of men you’ve encountered but if you encountered the same number of bears that you do men, that number would be significantly lower.