Zrádná čísla a jak jim stále znovu podléháme – Blauwová Sanne (2022)

Nothing can be more objective than numbers and statistics. Or can it? Life in modern society cannot be imagined without numbers and statistics. The coronavirus crisis has only underscored this fact: daily concerns and international agreements were based on current numbers of infections, vaccination rates, or the reproduction number. But statistics and numerical data have governed life long before that, and not only in the area of health — what else are the information about average salaries and minimum wages, grades in school, percentage ratings of services, GDP growth rates... Economic journalist Sanne Blauw decided to dedicate her career to numbers. Specifically, to what might be hidden behind the numbers and what they can be used for. Statistics do not appear by themselves; someone always determines what is measured and how it is measured. Similarly, we never listen to the mathematical data themselves, whether about employment rates or election results, but always to their interpretations. And there is always something more behind the numbers than cold, objective mathematics.