Lying With Statistics

             The Truth About Lying with Statistics
             People lie with statistics every day. You see them when you turn on the television, look at the posters in subways, and even when you are at the doctor's office. There are many instances where people use vague claims, false fractions and do not account bias into their claims. Not all of these instances are from people who meant to lie, but most from incorrect assumptions and conclusions. The misuse of communication of data in print or presentation, either intentionally or unintentionally, results in misleading those to whom the communication is directed.
             A classic example of associating statistics with lying is attributed to British Prime
             Minister Disraeli, who declared, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." More contemporary and book length efforts to explore lying and statistics include Darrel Huff's (1954) How to Lie with Statistics and Robert Hooke's (1983) How to Tell the Liars from the Statisticians. Neither of these books were intended to be primers for lying but, rather, light-hearted guides for non-statisticians in how to distinguish between complete statistical disclosures and good statistical reasoning on the one hand and misleading or malicious reporting of data on the other.
             Increasingly, we rely on statistics to determine trends, to judge public opinion, and even to learn which toothpaste reduces cavity production. Hooke (1983) distinguishes between statistics in the plural and in the singular. Most people think of statistics as plural; as sets of numbers and figures and data. Statisticians think of it as singular; a subject matter that allows one to understand chance, cause, effect, correlation, and scientific method. People who gather data (statistics plural) are not necessarily statisticians. If these "data pushers," as Hooke refers to them, use the data in an incomplete or uninformed manner, then th...

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Lying With Statistics. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 06:15, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/20596.html