• Sneezycat@sopuli.xyz
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    4 months ago

    Btw, something that really confused me when I was younger: “98% effectiveness” doesn’t mean a condom works 98% of the time, and 2% of the time you can get pregnant.

    It actually means that 98% of people that use a condom never get pregnant, and 2% do (over some amount of time I’m guessing? I’m not sure).

    • moody@lemmings.world
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      4 months ago

      That 2% includes forgetting to use one, running out and being too horny to abstain, and various other excuses for why you’re not wearing one when you’ve agreed beforehand that you would.

      I believe it’s over a period of one year.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Yep, using a condom and it working as it should is 100% effective, but they can’t say that because if it breaks or someone wears one that’s too big then it would open them to lawsuits

      • sushibowl@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        That 2% includes forgetting to use one, running out and being too horny to abstain, and various other excuses for why you’re not wearing one when you’ve agreed beforehand that you would.

        Not so. The 98% figure assumes correct use of the condom every time. In the real world where people are imperfect, condoms are only about 87% effective.

    • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This constantly came up in WoW, from the opposite direction.

      A 2% drop rate doesn’t mean a 100% chance 2% of the time, it means a 2% chance 100% of the time.

      • Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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        4 months ago

        The human brain does a very poor job at understanding chance. A lot of games use seeded pseudo-randomness for this reason. They’ll even give the player a slightly better percentage than advertised and there will still be people calling foul.