Survivorship bias

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Survivorship bias

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

During the second world war, researchers from the Center for Naval Analyses conducted a study on the damage done to returned aircraft after missions. They then recommended adding armor to the areas that showed the most damage to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire. However, Abraham Wald suggested differently. Wald was a Hungarian mathematician and a member of the Statistical Research Group where he applied his statistical skills to various wartime problems. He noticed a very simple thing: The planes they were analyzing were the ones returned. This means that these planes managed to return even if they got hit in those places, which means if they got hit in other places, they couldn’t achieve the same thing.

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