Two Forms of Misleading Statistics

Statistics are common tools being used to analyze any particular data in the purpose for forecasting one specific issue or using them to conclude something in general. Perfect graphs are very influential tools for displaying large quantities of complex data. Therefore, they help transfer different ranges of information available today into knowledge. However, some graphs deceive or mislead. A deceptive statistic can occur intentionally or unintentionally, but most of the time, it usually has been designed deliberately to give readers the impression of better performance or results than the actual situation. On the other hand, the person who organizes the graph may want to be precise and authentic, but may possibly deceive the audiences through a poor choice of a graph form or poor graph construction. Misleading statistics can be classified into two distinctive forms: survey problems and misleading graphs. Choice of sample and question phrasing are the two common problems which make the surveys become unreliable, whereas the misleading graph can be caused by title, labels on both axes of a line or bar chart and on all sections of a pie chart, source of the data, key to a pictograph, uniform size of a symbol in a pictograph, and scale. This essay will first illustrate the crucial reasons and realistic examples of survey problems, and then extent to how misleading graphs appear to be complete misleading statistics.
Survey Problems A survey can be turned into a complete mistake on account of various sources using to conclude it was totally or partly irrelevant and unreliable. In 1936, Literary Digest magazine directed more than 10 million ballots to readers to get their preferences in the upcoming presidential election between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alfred M. Landon. The results indicated that Landon, the Republican candidate, would receive victory decisively. However, the result of the real election indicated clearly that Roosevelt won in the first great