How could graphics and/or statistics be used to misrepresent data? Where have you seen this done? Statistics, graphics, and database are used in medical field to approve, prove, or disapprove theories, analysis, and interpretation of ailments, medication and it’s impact, and treatment and it’s effectiveness. However, these data can be easily misinterpreted when and where there is a vested interest. Individual opinions are generalized without considering whole aspects of the issue, thus forming a biased opinion.…
One of the most important things a buyer must do before making a purchase is to review any and all of the statistical research on a product. According to Bluman (2005), Statistical research is used to provide knowledge and information in order to enable us to make intelligent decisions about our health and welfare” (p.680). Although this information is very important to us, we must also be skeptical of the results. There are many types when the results cannot be reliable. According to Bluman (2005), “statistics can be misrepresented in the following ways: Suspect Samples, Ambiguous Averages, Detached Statistics, Implied Connections, Misleading Graphs, Faulty Survey Questions, Asking Biased Questions, Using Confusing Words, Asking Doubled-Barreled Questions, and Using Double Negatives” (p.680-685). The following are example of misuses of statistics.…
This report is based upon the book “Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists”, written by Joel Best and published by University of California Press in 2001. Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, has written a highly readable treatise on statistics, and how we can become better consumers of the statistical information that permeates the environment in which we live. Joel Best is a sociologist and, as a result, this is not a book about the mathematics of statistics, but about its sociology. That is, a book about the ways in which bad statistics are generated and spread through society.…
Statistics is the foundation for the criminal justice system as a field of research and scientific study. It allows for the expansion of information both in criminology and the criminal justice system itself. Crime is mostly a sociological response…
After watching Peter Donnelly: How juries are fooled by statistics (Donnelly, 2005), I learned that the use of statistics is very important to the medical field. In the case of Sally Clark, the mother who was convicted of murdering her children, statistics proved that she was innocent.…
Statistics can be used in many different ways to deliberately mislead the audience. One major way is by adding a break in a graph as seen above. Another way to deliberately mislead the audience is to change the scale of the graph which makes it looks like it went up or down more or less than it really did. Also, another way the audience can be deliberately fooled is by using a bad sample of data. If you ask people questions and you know they will all say the same thing then you may just ask that group of people the question but you can say it came from a study of the whole population. This leads people to think that more people than actually do in the general population believe/ agree with the question you are asking them. Another way statistics can be misleading is if you ask a bias leading question. This would be a question were you are suggesting the answer before the respondent has a chance to answer the question. "If you say don't you think" before the question this would be a bias leading question. Also, you can skew what the average of something actually is by using the arithmetic mean, mode and average which are all technically the average. Lastly, you can use volume instead of bars to make it look like there was a huge increase or decrease in something when there really wasn't.…
I think that crime statistics tells us the variation of crimes that are being committed. Each year the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under the Uniformed Crime Rate Program (UCR) collects information from law enforcement agencies throughout the United States, giving a total of how much crime is committed in each state. Crime statistics tells us that crime is up and on the rise, and more law enforcement to me is the only way to keep the crime rate down. The government is building more and more jails/prisons daily to house these criminals. Crimes like homicides, rape, drug, thief, gun, gang, and culturally motivated (terrorism) crimes are up. Statistics tells us that we are not combating this war on crime like we should be, and that without crime statistics we cannot pinpoint or target what group is committing the most crimes.…
Statistics show eighty-five percent of youth in prison, seventy-one percent of high school dropouts, ninety percent of homeless and runaway children have an absent father. Fatherless children and youth exhibit higher levels of: depression and suicide, delinquency and teen pregnancy, behavioral problems, illicit and licit substance abuse, diminished self-concepts, and are more likely to be victims of exploitation and abuse (Kruk 49). I believe both parents should be equally responsible in raising a child, physically and emotionally. Both parents should help each other raising a child to set an example of how a family should look like instead of putting everything on just one of them. If both parents work as a team in up-bringing a child it enriches the child's life, giving him or her much more stimulus along with enhancing self-confidence and influences their personality. Ultimately both parents influence the future life of a child and how he or she will perceive the world, along with their levels of happiness, morality and productiveness, and their academic successfulness.…
Quality Control: Assume that at least one of the tests from Part 4 was rejected (proportion not equal to targeted amount set by Masterfoods). Discuss how you would investigate the operations of the plant to determine why the proportions were off the targeted values. Speculate on three or more possible conditions in plant and bagging process that could have caused the observed results.…
Statistics are of value to us all. As learned throughout the readings for this week, they are there to provide us vast amount of data related to health care, including why a drug may be indicated for a certain treatment (or the likelihood of it working); parameters for disease signs and symptoms; and even the prevalence of certain disease(s) within our areas to ensure competent care can be provided for our community. As noted by Nursing Research (2011): “Health information is very often explained in statistical terms for making it concise and understandable (Basic Statistical Concepts, 2011, para. 1).” As established, statistics play a large role in research!! The bad news is, just like anything, statistical data can be misrepresented.…
During the 19th century, Benjamin Disraeli, a British politician made a statement that still has significant resonance today: “There are three kinds of lies – lies, damned lies, and statistics” (as cited in Ball, 2004). Disraeli’s statement is merely a simple explanation of how the media sensationalize data, especially crime data, when reporting or publishing news items to the public. In that regard, reporters and journalist on many occasions take liberties in spicing data and news items up just to garnish some increased attention from the readers or the listeners. In a broader sense, media reporting may not accurately reflect facts since reporters and journalists has the ability to manipulate figures to say whatever they want them to.…
I read How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff for my summer assignment and I learned a lot of new information. My first “A-Ha!” moment was in the second chapter where it talked about the “well chosen average”. I’ve always thought that the average meant the mean, adding the data and dividing by the total data points. Really there are three different averages; the mean, the median (the one in the middle), and the mode (the one that occurs most often). A lot of people will pick the average that makes their data look the best so it seems more appealing to others, despite another average being a more accurate representation. This makes it very easy to trick someone into thinking that the average is much better than it actually is.…
Ethics in statistics are very important during data representation as well. Numbers don’t lie but their interpretation and representation can be misleading. For example, after a broad survey of many customers, a company might decide to publish and make available only the numbers and figures that reflect well on the company and either totally neglect or not give due importance to other figures.…
1. A radio station that plays classical music has a “By Request” program each Saturday night. The percentage of requests for composers on a particular night are listed below:…
Measurement data sometimes called quantitative data -- the result of using some instrument to measure something (e.g., test score, weight);…