Proceed With Caution: The Danger of Interpreting Statistics

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Statistics should be interpreted with caution as they can be misleading;

they can both lie and tell the truth.

Whether or not people notice the importance of statistics, statistics are used by different cohorts of people from a farmer to an academician and a politician in their everyday life. For example, Cambodian famers produce an average of three tons or rice per hectare, connection about eighty per cent of Cambodian population is a farmer, and at least two million people support party A?. According to the University of Melbourne, statistics are about making conclusive estimates about the present or to predict the future (The University of Melbourne, 2009). Statistics are not always trustable, yet they depend on their reliable factors such as samples, data collection methods and sources. This essay will discuss how people can use statistics to present facts or to delude others. Then, it will discuss some of the criteria for a reliable interpretation of statistics. Haven’t really improved the cohesion.

Researchers, professionals and others use statistics to prove their claims or findings. Even though statistics are not an absolute fact because the conclusion is mostly drawn from a sample group – representative of a specific population subjected to the research, it is commonly used as the basis of decision making or alternating choices in daily living, studies, work, scientific research, politics and other planning. The inventor of a documentary film called “An Inconvenient Truth”, Mr. Al Gore, for instance, in his campaign to educate people about the climate change, used statistics to alert people that everyone on earth is polluting the environment and should participate in solving the problem. He collected data on climat...

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...eptive. It depends on how it is used, collected and analyzed. Therefore, readers should understand what reliable statistics are. Yet, statistics are very important for researchers, scientists, students, employers and individuals to make decisions as well as to authenticate any claims or scientific theories.

Bibliography

Braid, J. H. (2003). How statistics can lie? Retrieved February 04, 2011, from N Turfgrass:

http://turf.unl.edu/extpresentationspdf/BairdStats.pdf

International Republican Institute. (2010). Survey of Cambodian Public Opinion. Phnom Penh.

Rosenberg, M. (2010, 11 17). China's one child policy. Retrieved 01 31, 2011, from About.com:

http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/onechild.htm

The University of Melbourne. (2009). What is statistics? Retrieved 01 30, 2011, from Statistical

Consulting Center: www.scc.ms.unimelb.edu.au/

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