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How Not to Be Fooled · Chapter 2

Who Did We Ask?

A sample is not a population — and missing people still count

Three friends, a pizza line, a wartime airplane, and a ladle of soup. Jules learns that the first question under any big number is: who did we actually count?

12 panels · ~6 min read

A kid at a lunch table polls three grinning friends about pineapple pizza and writes a sweeping conclusion in a notebook.

Panel 1

A researcher points from a small table of pineapple fans toward the rest of a crowded cafeteria the kid did not poll.

Panel 2

A kid counts students in a pizza line while other students eat packed lunches at far tables, outside the count.

Panel 3

A few confident students raise hands in class while others sit still, as a researcher warns that silence is still data.

Panel 4

A kid stares at a phone full of angry comments while a researcher gestures at a quiet street of people who posted nothing.

Panel 5

A researcher shows a diagram of a returning airplane with bullet holes on the wings, explaining that missing planes tell a different story.

Panel 6

A trophy shelf of smiling winners stands in the light while many other kids who tried wait unlit behind a curtain.

Panel 7

A researcher stirs a pot of mixed soup and lifts a ladle that holds a mix of vegetables, showing a fair sample.

Panel 8

A tiny spoon holding three beans sits beside a large mixed ladle from the same soup pot.

Panel 9

A kid sketches a cafeteria group photo and marks empty chairs for students who were not asked.

Panel 10

A kid and a researcher look at a bus-shelter toothpaste ad claiming most dentists agree, questioning who was asked.

Panel 11

A kid walks a cafeteria drawing name slips from every table to redo a pizza poll more fairly.

Panel 12

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