When Averages Mislead

The average person has fewer than two legs. The average net worth of a bar changes when Jeff Bezos walks in. Averages hide distributions — and in skewed distributions, the mean can be far from typical experience. Always ask about the shape of the data.

Policy disasters often trace to average-thinking. "Average income growth is 3%" hides that the bottom half got zero and the top 1% got most of it. Medical trials reporting "average improvement" can mask that 30% got worse and 70% got dramatically better. Ask for the distribution, not the average.