3 Comments
User's avatar
LONES SMITH's avatar

OK I am puzzled at one test.

"Just to double-check, I re-examined the same data using an additional analysis of the 2nd leading digit with Benford’s law, which predicts the distribution of digits in natural number sets. Examining the first digit likely would not work on this data set."

But Benford's Law (which is sort of cool) only applies to the lead digit

https://statisticsbyjim.com/probability/benfords-law

Expand full comment
Fake PhD Investigator's avatar

Good question. Benford's law also applies to the digits following the first one, but with a different, more subtle distribution. See this paper. https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/othr/papers/0507/0507001.pdf

Expand full comment
Argo's avatar

Shame, I enjoyed Dan Ariely's books. I didn't know the underlying research had so many issues.

Expand full comment