First World War Head Injuries
In the First World War the number of head injuries was very high and soldiers took a long time to recover. To begin with, the soldiers only had cloth hats to wear, but after the introduction of tin hats the number of injuries to the head increased dramatically. No one could explain it, until it was revealed that the earlier records only accounted for the injuries, not fatalities. After the introduction, the number of fatalities dropped dramatically, but the number of injuries went up because the tin helmet was saving their lives, but the soldiers were still injured. This demonstrates the second rule of statistical interpretation: which question is being asked? A leading or misleading question used to gather statistics can result in misleading statistics.
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U196159" title="BBC - h2g2 - Star Trek Nut - U196159">Atlantic_Cable</a> (2003, July 28), <em>BBC - h2g2 - How To Understand Statistics</em>. Retrieved July 31, 2003, from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1091350" title="BBC - h2g2 - How To Understand Statistics">www.bbc.co.uk/ dna/ h2g2/ A1091350</a>.