‘Up to’ is a misleading rhetorical device widely used in marketing, politics, etc. It precedes a statistic that is an impressive or scary maximum, where some kind of average would almost always be the relevant figure instead. So I’m immediately suspicious of any claim containing the phrase ‘up to’.
Eg broadband providers that quote maximum speeds (that only a few optimally-located customers might get in the early hours of the morning) instead of averages. IIRC the UK’s advertising regulator has banned this particular trick.
Indeed maxima are often nearly meaningless, such as ‘up to x% of COVID cases result in death’. Why not a single figure? In practice it may mean something like: among various studies, the highest estimate produced was x%. (So why not give the range, or just the average?) Or it means something almost irrelevant, like: among various unstated categories of people, the highest figure is x% - likely to be a small, unrepresentative subgroup (e.g. aged over 90, or those with BMI > 30).
I can’t be the only person who’s noticed this rhetorical device everywhere (I haven’t checked), though I’ve never read/heard anyone else mention it.
‘Up to’ is a misleading rhetorical device widely used in marketing, politics, etc. It precedes a statistic that is an impressive or scary maximum, where some kind of average would almost always be the relevant figure instead. So I’m immediately suspicious of any claim containing the phrase ‘up to’.
Eg broadband providers that quote maximum speeds (that only a few optimally-located customers might get in the early hours of the morning) instead of averages. IIRC the UK’s advertising regulator has banned this particular trick.
Indeed maxima are often nearly meaningless, such as ‘up to x% of COVID cases result in death’. Why not a single figure? In practice it may mean something like: among various studies, the highest estimate produced was x%. (So why not give the range, or just the average?) Or it means something almost irrelevant, like: among various unstated categories of people, the highest figure is x% - likely to be a small, unrepresentative subgroup (e.g. aged over 90, or those with BMI > 30).
I can’t be the only person who’s noticed this rhetorical device everywhere (I haven’t checked), though I’ve never read/heard anyone else mention it.
I see this most often with toothbrushes, “Removes up to 100% of plaque!”.