Loneliness; School Funding; Same-Sex Divorce.

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2018

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week BBC Radio 4’s All in the Mind programme announced the results of The Loneliness Experiment. It was a large survey conducted by the programme in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection. The largest survey into the issue of loneliness to date, said All in the Mind, while the accompanying BBC press release reported that “The survey results indicate that 16-24 year olds experience loneliness more often and more intensely than any other age group. 40% of respondents aged 16-24 reported feeling lonely often or very often, while only 29% of people aged 65-74 and 27% of people aged over 75 said the same.” In the editors' notes, the press release cautions that “This was a self-selecting sample, so people experiencing loneliness might have been more attracted to take part, inflating reported levels of loneliness.” But much of the reporting by other BBC outlets and the wider media was not so restrained. Tim Harford speaks to Deirdre Toher from the University of the West of England about why the survey's results need careful interpretation. Listeners have been asking us to explain the schools funding row. When headteachers marched in protest at school spending last week, the Minister for School Standards, Nick Gibb, went on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to say "We are spending record amounts on our school funding. We are the third highest spender on education in the OECD”. BBC Education correspondent Sean Coughlan explains how he discovered that the OECD figure includes university tuition fees paid by students. Is it true that "Polish Pilots Shot down 60% of German Aircraft on Battle of Britain Day"? Lizzie McNeill fact-checks this claim found on the side of a van. New figures reveal that same-sex divorce rates are higher among women than among men. Tim Harford discusses why this may be with Marina Ashdade, economist at the Vancouver School of Economics and author of “Dirty Money”, a book about the economics of sex and love. Plus, what makes a listener loyal? A nine-year debate rages on. Presenter: Tim Harford Producer: Ruth Alexander Image: A single fan sits in the stands before a college football game Credit: Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the last in the present series of more or less statistical cold turkey
0:06.3	begins in less than half an hour, but for now feast upon a large survey of loneliness,
0:12.1	conducted and then misreported by the lovable old BBC, a schools minister keen to claim
0:17.4	credit for other people spending, will launch a second sortie to the Battle of Britain,
0:22.7	and a number of disloyal listeners reopen an old debate.
0:27.3	But first, this week BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind program announced the results of
0:32.8	the loneliness experiment. It was a large survey conducted by the program in collaboration
0:38.1	with the welcome collection. The larger survey into the issue of loneliness to date,
0:42.9	said all in the mind, while the accompanying BBC press release reported that,
0:47.7	the survey results indicate that 16 to 24-year-olds experience loneliness more often and more intensely
0:54.7	than any other age group. 40% of respondents aged 16 to 24 reported feeling lonely often
1:01.5	or very often. But in the end notes, the press release caution that this was a self-selecting sample,
1:09.8	so people experiencing loneliness might have been more attracted to take part in flating reported
1:16.0	levels of loneliness. Well, quite so, and it's a shame that some of the other BBC outlets who picked
1:22.0	up the story didn't read all the way through the press release. While the program team were
1:26.8	careful not to say that the survey showed 40% of all 16 to 24-year-olds lonely, rather than
1:32.7	40% of the ones who responded to the survey, much through reporting by other BBC outlets
1:38.9	and the wider media wasn't so restrained. The nationwide survey found that 40% of 16 to 24-year-olds
1:46.2	feel lonely often or very often. Said the 10 o'clock news, not so fast,
1:51.8	we spoke to Dr. Deirdre Toher, a senior lecturer and applied statistician at the University of
1:57.8	the West of England. I was somewhat skeptical when I first heard the headlines. It was
2:04.2	rather different to the figures I'd heard before, so 40% of young people feeling lonely,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.