Simpson’s paradox

In which the curmudgeonly old sod puts the world to rights.

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Simpson's paradox is a statistical phenomenon where a trend that is apparent appears in several groups of related data, when viewed in isolation, disappears or reverses when the groups are combined.

It plays particular havoc with social scientists when they try to draw causal inferences — or moral imperatives — from data they have gathered with the careful intention of illustrating their own precious hypothesis.