What do you mean by this quote?

Question

"Statistics, when used properly, is a valuable tool to society. However, many individuals, businesses, and advertising firms misuse statistics to their own advatage"

Can you please explain this with examples.

Answer 1

what do I mean? Nothing, it's not my quote. Maybe you should ask what the person who made the quote meant.

Answer 2

Many years ago, there was a helpful little book called "How to Lie with Statistics."  You might see if it's in your school library.

Fun examples:

Harvard men have an average of 2 children; graduates of a well-known women's college have an average of 1 child.  Therefore, men have more children than women.

The average height of male jockeys is 4'11"; the average height of members of a women's basektball team is 5'11"--threfore women are taller than men.

Everyone has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, and 8 great-grandparents.  Therefore, the population of the world used to be 8 times greater than it is now.

Answer 3

A lot of people just make up the statistics they use.

For example, the above sentence could easily have said, "88% of people make up the statistics that they quote."

Another example of this is the famous line, "But, Mom, everybody else does it."

I run my own business and statistics (like my balance sheet or my profit and loss statement) tell me how my business is doing each month, so I can plan on what needs changed or not.

I particularly like the profit and loss statement since it shows clearly what has come in and what has gone out monetarily.  BUT, I also realize that the statistics that this report shows are vastly affected by what length of time the report is averaged over as well as whether a large one-time sale, or a large deposit have just been recorded which will skew the results.

Statistics are often quoted by politicians who desire to get people behind their cause.  Even if they don't actually lie about the statistics they use, most of the time they don't tell you what people (or even how many) were polled and included in the study.

For example:  A report on air conditioner use would be ridiculous to use as a 'needs assessment' for southern California if the people included in the statistical study were all from northern Alaska.

Statistics are great.  But only if you know where your sample came from, how large it was, when it was done, and if any of the data was thrown out (if so, you ought to know why -or in some cases why not).

Of course, the classic example of accurately reported statistics that are being misused is the following.

The Russians and Americans had one car apiece in a race.

The American car came in first, the Russian car was second.

The results of the race were accurately reported as follows:

Out of all the cars in the race, the Russians came in second while the Americans were next to last.

Answer 4

to interpret statistics properly sometimes an expert is needed as it can get trivial so the sentence here means that even though it can be a valuable tool but its been used by some to show just the positive side or the points that are to their benefit and are able to deceive the layman.

Answer 5

Suppose you were using a radio call-in statistic to make an argument for or against... let's say, the death penalty.

If I were listening to that radio station, I might only call in to voice my opinion if I had a capital punishment case close to me; perhaps I lost a family member wrongfully to the electric chair.  I would call in and show my opposition to the death penalty.   Alternatively, I might call in if my daughter were the 12th victim of sexual abuse by a man who is eventually not put to death.  If I felt death appropriate for him, I might call in to voice my opinion.    This sort of statistic is faulty because it isn't random, but plays to a certain type of population.

Another example, a real one---  Internet polls show that a Democratic candidate is most favored for the next American president.  This doesn't reflect the heavy percentage of Americans who don't vote on internet polls.  What this really reflects is that the majority of people who vote on political internet polls will likely vote democratic.  Anyone who cites these polls is using statistics improperly.

Another example could be when using an average.  Usually an average of a set of numbers is meant to imply that this is the normal number.  Let's make up a situation where....  A neighborhood of 50 people is polled about the number of pets they have.  30 families have 3 or fewer pets, but 20 families decide to go all out and have more than 10 pets.  According to statistics, the average family in this neighborhood has more than 3 pets.  You might see statistics saying, "every family has about 4 to 5 pets in this neighborhood"   where in truth, no family has 4 or 5 pets.

These are just a few small examples of how statistics can be misused.