Statistics Abuse

[irish_prime]

I find I really hate when people misrepresent things, especially if they do so with math - this is, arguably, the whole point of statistics, though

Comments

[dukamok]

i was listening to npr yesterday and some reasonable fellow was saying essentially this same thing, that the CA governor's office kept harping on statistics of the past 10 years that were really misleading given the past 30-50 years. the response of the governor's office PR guy was to literally say "well that's all well and good, but *repeats same useless statistics about pension increases*"

its astounding how much can be implied and how much is inferred from stating only part of the whole truth. media literacy should be taught in schools.

[irish_prime]

I'm not surprised people say things like this, nor by the willingness of people to accept it, but it is both upsetting and discouraging.

[jmfoots]

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/peter_donnelly_shows_how_stats_fool_juries.html

Have a look here as well. Something you might enjoy.

[fep_roflwaffle]

Excellent.

Hahaha

[anonymous]

Best thing I've read in a while. Thanks.
-Tripp