Misleading Statistics
Statistics are an excellent way to enhance an argument and persuade your audience;however, there are some considerations to keep in mind. Statistics can be misleading, because they are often taken out of context. Sometimes, important information is left out about how the statistic was collected in order to make it seem more dramatic, proving big ideas or generalizations that it wouldn't if the rest of the information was included.
For example, let's say you found a statistic that said 5 out of 5 dentists recommend a certain brand of toothpaste. That sounds like this is a great brand of toothpaste that everyone should use. However, what if you found out thatthe dentists were all asked if they would recommend that brand of toothpaste or not brushing your teeth at all?Of course all of the dentists are going to pick the brand of toothpaste. This makes the 5 out of 5 recommendation basically meaningless. You might assume when you see this statistic that dentists were ranking this toothpaste brand over other toothpaste brands, instead of against not brushing your teeth at all;this makes the statistic misleading.
Another way statistics can be misleading is in the sample size that the data was collected in. For example, let's say you found a statisticthat says 4 out of 5 women prefer wearing high heels over flats to work. However, when you start looking closer at the source the statistic came from, you find that this statistic came from someone asking 5 women they work with in a corporate law firm if they liked wearing heels or flats to work. This is a problem for several reasons.
First, the information was collected from a very small sample size (5 women who all work at the same place). These 5 women cannot represent all women and their opinions on high heels. Second, this sample is very biased, because all of the women work in the same corporate law firm. These women's opinions are not going to reflect all women's opinions, regardless of the number of women sampled, because the women are too similar to one another.If all women in all industries were surveyed for this question, the statistic would look very different. Because of this, it's always important to know the context of any statistic before you use it in your argument. Similarly, you want to be wary of statistics you find that don't have context or can't be tracked back to an original source.
Just like evaluating the credibility of your sources, you will want to do the same for when you want to use statistics in your research. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Can you find the original source that this statistic was published in? This will help you understand the context of the statistics.
- Who published the original source and where was it published?
- Who collected the information for the statistics? Do they have any kind of agenda/stake in the statistics?
- When was the information collected? Could it be out of date?
- How big was the sample size/how much data was collected? What were the demographics of the sample size? This will help you figure out if the statistics are representative of a certain group or area.
Here is an article that goes deeper into how statistics can be misleading and ways to determine whether your statistics are misleading or not.
FAQs
Statistics are important because they help people make informed decisions. Governments, organizations, and businesses all collect statistics to help them track progress, measure performance, analyze problems, and prioritize.
Why are statistics important in research? ›
In conclusion, the use of statistics in research is essential as it enables researchers to make sense of their data, make informed and valid claims, and generally support scientific inquiry. The role of statistics in research cannot be overstated as it has become increasingly crucial in today's data-driven world.
What are the 5 reasons why statistics is important? ›
To summarize, the five reasons to study statistics are to be able to effectively conduct research, to be able to read and evaluate journal articles, to further develop critical thinking and analytic skills, to act a an informed consumer, and to know when you need to hire outside statistical help.
Why is statistics important in social science research? ›
Statistics plays a central role in the social sciences, applying rigorous quantitative methods to understand and solve some of the greatest challenges affecting human societies. Statistics is especially critical at a time when the volume and type of available data are transforming the social sciences.
What is statistics and its importance? ›
Statistics is the study of the collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and organization of data. In other words, it is a mathematical discipline to collect, summarize data. Also, we can say that statistics is a branch of applied mathematics.
How important is statistical significance in research? ›
What Is Statistical Significance? “Statistical significance helps quantify whether a result is likely due to chance or to some factor of interest,” says Redman. When a finding is significant, it simply means you can feel confident that's it real, not that you just got lucky (or unlucky) in choosing the sample.
What is the statistical mean in research? ›
Statistical mean is a certain kind of mathematical average that's very useful in computer science, and in machine learning in particular. Simply speaking, the statistical mean is an arithmetic mean process, in that it adds up all numbers in a data set, and then divides the total by the number of data points.
Why are statistics important today? ›
Statistics can be used in real life to plan budgets, determine the best routes to travel, find the best prices for products bought and sold, and the best times to perform various daily activities.
What is 5 significance in statistics? ›
A level of significance of p=0.05 means that there is a 95% probability that the results found in the study are the result of a true relationship/difference between groups being compared. It also means that there is a 5% chance that the results were found by chance alone and no true relationship exists between groups.
Why is statistics required? ›
Statistics lies at the heart of the type of quantitative reasoning necessary for making important advances in the sciences, such as medicine and genetics, and for making important decisions in business and public policy.
Statistical knowledge helps you use the proper methods to collect the data, employ the correct analyses, and effectively present the results. Statistics is a crucial process behind how we make discoveries in science, make decisions based on data, and make predictions.
What is the benefit of statistics for society? ›
Conclusion. Social statistics are important because they provide a way to measure the progress of a society. They can be used to compare different societies and to identify social problems. They can also be used to inform policy decisions and to evaluate the effectiveness of policies.
What is statistical significance in social research? ›
Within the social sciences, researchers often adopt a significance level of 5%. This means researchers are only willing to conclude that the results of their study are statistically significant if the probability of obtaining those results if the null hypothesis were true—known as the p value—is less than 5%.
What are the five purpose of statistics? ›
Statistics are used to conduct research, evaluate outcomes, develop critical thinking, and make informed decisions. Statistics can be used to inquire almost any field of study to investigate why things happen, when they occur, and whether its reoccurrence is predictable.
What are the most important things in statistics? ›
The three essential elements of statistics are measurement, comparison, and variation. Randomness is one way to supply variation, and it's one way to model variation, but it's not necessary.
What is statistics in research? ›
Statistics is a branch of science that deals with the collection, organisation, analysis of data and drawing of inferences from the samples to the whole population.[1] This requires a proper design of the study, an appropriate selection of the study sample and choice of a suitable statistical test.
Why is it important for researchers to interpret statistical findings? ›
High-quality statistical analysis in research is vital to making it clear what the importance of the research is and helping future researchers build on your work. It can also make it easier for laypersons to understand the significance of complex academic research.
Why is statistics the language of research? ›
So when you do your research, generally, you gather these "data" either from respondents or experimental factors. It is considered as the language of research because without this data or statistics, a research can't be completed and communicated with accordingly. It is like the heart of every research study.
What is the purpose of the statistical analysis? ›
Statistical analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing large volumes of data in order to identify trends and develop valuable insights. In the professional world, statistical analysts take raw data and find correlations between variables to reveal patterns and trends to relevant stakeholders.
Why is it important to study statistics and probability? ›
More generally, probability and statistics help individuals and institutions make better decisions by learning from events in the past and applying this knowledge to the present to affect the future.
