Laymen and Statistics - Law of Averages, Misuse of Statistics, Statistics Education, Risk Perception, Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (Paperback)

Chapters: Law of Averages, Misuse of Statistics, Statistics Education, Risk Perception, Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics, Statistical Proof, Statistical Literacy, Confidence in Statistical Conclusions, Statisticians' and Engineers' Cross-Reference of Statistical Terms. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 47. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: A misuse of statistics occurs when a statistical argument asserts a falsehood. In some cases, the misuse may be accidental. In others, it is purposeful and for the gain of the perpetrator. When the statistical reason involved is false or misapplied, this constitutes a statistical fallacy. The false statistics trap can be quite damaging to the quest for knowledge. For example, in medical science, correcting a falsehood may take decades and cost lives. Misuses can be easy to fall into. Professional scientists, even mathematicians and professional statisticians, can be fooled by even some simple methods, even if they are careful to check everything. Scientists have been known to fool themselves with statistics due to lack of knowledge of probability theory and lack of standardization of their tests. In product quality control terms all a company has to do to promote a neutral (useless) product is to find or conduct, for example, 40 studies with a confidence level of 95%. If the product is really useless, this would on average produce one study showing the product was beneficial, one study showing it was harmful and thirty-eight inconclusive studies (38 is 95% of 40). This tactic becomes more effective the more studies there are available. Organizations that do not publish every study they carry out, such as tobacco companies denying a link between smoking and cancer, or miracle pill vendors, are likely to use this tactic. Another common technique is...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=121735