In the past weeks, the following graphic poster has been shared frequently on social media:
The small print is pretty small; it reads: “if England get beaten, so will she. Domestic violence increases 26% when England play, 38% if they lose”.
Tomas van Dijk, a journalist working for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant contacted me this week. He’s writing a piece factchecking these numbers and asked me for my opinion. As these numbers, 26% and 38%, are taken from a paper from 2013, he suggested to look at this years data as well. Furthermore, he noted that it is known that there is a relation between temperature and domestic violence (more violence when it is too warm), so he asked if I could have a look at the role of temperature as well.