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Faith and Charity?

Tim Harford investigates the numbers in the news and in life. Is there a link between practising a religion and donating to charity?

"Religion Makes People More Generous"- That's how The Daily Telegraph reported a new ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ poll on charitable giving. Tim Harford investigates whether there is a link between practising a religion and whether we give.

Big data has been enjoying a lot of hype, with promises it will help deliver everything from increased corporate profits to better healthcare. While the potential is certainly there, is the hype blinding us to some basic statistical lessons learned over the past two hundred years?

And with 365 days in the year, it feels like a huge coincidence when we meet someone with the same birthday. But you only need 23 people to have a better than even chance that two will share a birthday. Alex Bellos tests out this counter-intuitive result, known as the birthday paradox, on the perfect real-word data-set - all 32 squads of 23 players at the World Cup.

Available now

26 minutes

Last on

Sun 15 Jun 2014 20:00

Chapters

  • Faith and Charity?

    Is there a link between what we believe and whether we give?

    Duration: 09:02

  • Bad Data

    Big data has enjoyed a lot of hype but are we forgetting basic statistical lessons?

    Duration: 08:35

  • World Cup Birthdays

    We use the World Cup to test the β€œbirthday paradox” with Alex Bellos.

    Duration: 04:59

Broadcasts

  • Fri 13 Jun 2014 16:30
  • Sun 15 Jun 2014 20:00

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