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investigation and/or careful selection, but whose origin is unknown and whose basis is unsubstantiated. An example is the number 48 billion, which has often been accepted as the number of dollars per year of identity theft. This number "has appeared in hundreds of news stories, including a New York
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Times piece" despite the fact that it has been shown repeatedly to be highly inaccurate. The term was coined in 1971 by
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183:(3, special issue: The New Public Management in New Zealand and beyond): 463–469.
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173:"The gun debate's new mythical number: how many defensive uses per year?"
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10.1002/(SICI)1520-6688(199722)16:3<463::AID-PAM6>3.0.CO;2-F
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Reuter, Peter (1987). "The (continued) vitality of mythical numbers".
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Singer, Max (Spring 1971). "The vitality of mythical numbers".
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Cook, Philip J.; Jens Ludwig; David
Hemenway (Summer 1997).
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47:The origins of such numbers are akin to those of
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58:extrapolation from apparently similar fields
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134:The (Ongoing) Vitality of Mythical Numbers
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177:Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
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70:guess-estimates by public officials
31:used and accepted as deriving from
218:. You can help Knowledge (XXG) by
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51:and may include (among others):
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55:misinterpretation of examples
40:, one of the founders of the
94:For all intents and purposes
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73:deliberate misinformation
16:Not to be confused with
61:especially successful
210:This article about a
158:at edwardtufte.com.
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18:Imaginary number
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67:comical results
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143:Bibliography
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259:Categories
153:(23): 3–9.
120:References
109:Truthiness
38:Max Singer
33:scientific
132:Shafer,
104:Noble lie
99:Newspeak
78:See also
265:Numbers
89:Factoid
212:number
156:Online
63:pranks
29:number
214:is a
27:is a
216:stub
185:doi
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