Campaign donation reports - math wise are the numbers real

I seem to recall having read or heard that when figures are created by a person, they tend to over use certain numbers as digits, one of which was the number 7.

I saw this list posted here (included below) and thought it odd that in these totals, the number 7 appears in 70% of the entries. It is in 14 entries, used 19 times. That about 16% of the total digits.

The other numbers above 5 are used about half that many times. Obviously since the totals are in the 100,000 to 300,000 range the leading 1 through 3 would not be significant.

There is Bedford's Law which partially addresses this concept.

I am not mathematician, maybe there is one on ATS who can give more information on this subject.

Anyone out here recall a similar theory about numbers?

Obama Campaign Contributions (Obviously a partial list but it is major donors)

Microsoft Corp $387,395
University of California $330,258
DLA Piper $306,727
Google Inc $271,300
Sidley Austin LLP $257,296
Harvard University $232,158
Comcast Corp $201,606
Stanford University $187,290
Time Warner $178,164
Skadden, Arps et al $169,753
US Government $149,458
US Dept of State $147,917
National Amusements Inc $138,955
Morgan & Morgan $135,145
Columbia University $134,497
Kaiser Permanente $132,257
Wells Fargo $127,807
University of Chicago $127,507
Wilmerhale Llp $117,661
Kirkland & Ellis $113,770

From post in Obama wants your gifts to help fund his campaign

Originally posted by roadgravel
I seem to recall having read or heard that when figures are created by a person, they tend to over use certain numbers as digits, one of which was the number 7.

I saw this list posted here (included below) and thought it odd that in these totals, the number 7 appears in 70% of the entries. It is in 14 entries, used 19 times. That about 16% of the total digits.

The other numbers above 5 are used about half that many times. Obviously since the totals are in the 100,000 to 300,000 range the leading 1 through 3 would not be significant.

There is Bedford's Law which partially addresses this concept.

I am not mathematician, maybe there is one on ATS who can give more information on this subject.

Anyone out here recall a similar theory about numbers?

Obama Campaign Contributions (Obviously a partial list but it is major donors)

Microsoft Corp $387,395
University of California $330,258
DLA Piper $306,727
Google Inc $271,300
Sidley Austin LLP $257,296
Harvard University $232,158
Comcast Corp $201,606
Stanford University $187,290
Time Warner $178,164
Skadden, Arps et al $169,753
US Government $149,458
US Dept of State $147,917
National Amusements Inc $138,955
Morgan & Morgan $135,145
Columbia University $134,497
Kaiser Permanente $132,257
Wells Fargo $127,807
University of Chicago $127,507
Wilmerhale Llp $117,661
Kirkland & Ellis $113,770

From post in Obama wants your gifts to help fund his campaign

Every number in there has a 1 in 10 chance to be a 7. Are you really surprised to see 7's?