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WS MoreOrLess: Genocide in South Africa?
It is claimed white South Africans are being systematically killed because of the colour of their skin, but do the crime statistics back this up? No, explains Julian Rademeyer from Africa Check and J…
Published on 12 years ago
WS MoreOrLess: Testing the PISA test
The publication of the latest international education league table has created waves around the world. From Shanghai at the top of the table to Peru at the bottom, the PISA rankings create a lot of d…
Published on 12 years ago
Football Ranking Mysteries Explained
Ahead of the 2014 World Cup draw next Friday, we look at world football rankings. How are Switzerland seeded when the Netherlands, Italy and England are not? The answer lies in the playing of friendl…
Published on 12 years ago
WS MoreOrLess: Could statistics cure cancer?
Ruth Alexander speaks to a statistician at the forefront of cancer research, Professor Terry Speed. He has just been awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science in Australia. This programme was fi…
Published on 12 years, 1 month ago
WS MoreOrLess: Sachin Tendulkar - best batsman of all time?
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has amassed 15,847 test runs, which is 2,500 more runs than any other batsman. But other ways have been devised to calculate cricketing greatness and the Little Master, as he …
Published on 12 years, 1 month ago
WS MoreOrLess: Does politics make us get our sums wrong?
To what degree do our personal opinions cloud our judgement? Yale University researchers have attempted to detect and measure how our political beliefs affect our ability to make rational decisions. …
Published on 12 years, 1 month ago
100,000 Christian martyrs?
It is claimed an average of 100,000 Christians have died because of their faith every year for the past decade: and that this is an 'unreported catastrophe'. The Vatican has called it a credible numb…
Published on 12 years, 1 month ago
WS MoreOrLess: Fertility - when is too late?
Women in their late thirties shouldn’t be as anxious about their prospects of having a baby as is commonly assumed, psychologist Jean Twenge argues. Tim Harford finds fertility experts agree. This pr…
Published on 12 years, 2 months ago
WS MoreOrLess: Nobel Prize puzzle
Tim Harford tells the story of how two economists who disagree with each other have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize. Eugene Fama has shown that stock markets are efficient, while Robert Shiller …
Published on 12 years, 2 months ago
The Hawthorne Effect
Tim Harford tells the story of the Hawthorne Experiments, one of the most famous social studies of the Twentieth Century. The finding – that workers are more productive if they are given attention - …
Published on 12 years, 2 months ago