On lawnmowers and terrorists again: the danger of using historical data alone for decision-making

The short paper and blog posting we did last week generated a lot of interest, especially after Nicholas Taleb retweeted it. An edited version (along with a response from a representative of the Royal Statistical Society) is going to appear in the February issue of Significance magazine (which is the magazine of the RSS and the American Statistical Association). In the mean time we have produced another short paper that explores further problems with the 'lawnmower versus terrorist risk' statistics - in particular the inevitable limitations and dangers of relying on historical data alone for risk assessment:

Fenton, N.E., & Neil, M. (2018). "Is decision-making using historical data alone more dangerous than lawnmowers?", Open Access Report DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.20914.71363. Also available here.