This page aims to empower us to be better consumers of statistics. More aware of their capacity to mislead & of their ability to enable.
It also attempts to advocate the use of good stats in media.
In much media, a statistic is quoted without even a reference to its source. Some of us will just accept that’s the way it is while others will be suspiciously looking for a hidden agenda.
A common mindset is that numbers are facts. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When actually doing the statistics, often the hardest part is how to correctly interpret the results. There are so many assumptions which go into the construction of a study, this often puts us in a space far from absolutes.
That’s not to say statistics are weak. They are just a tool. This tool can provide strong evidence regarding issues like the causal relationship between human activity & global warming (note, no citation) or which strategies most effectively reduce assault rates in a given metropolis. It can also be used to argue against the causality between human BURNING of dinosaur remains and the planet’s inevitable apocalypse, in which case assault rates will be staggering. It just goes to show.
Statistics are crucial in so many areas of life, from medical research, mate selection, business strategy or global decision making. They are so widely used, and this is why we think literacy thereof is so important!
Doing better stats, means there is a higher quality of information out there. If we want to be capitalist about it, if the consumer demands higher quality of information they will eventually get it (note this is probably not true).
We will hope for a world where there is more accountability for just saying stuff. Where there is distinction made between evidence and proof. And making things up.
Statistics attempts to provide evidence to an answer of a question.
A list of issues we would like to discuss:
- Cognitive biases
- Failure to reference details contextualising details of the study
- Anchoring