In a number of posts here on IB I’ve ranted a bit about the use, misuse, and outright misinterpretation of statistics. Here’s an interesting article that shows just how they can be misused.
Read this: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/voting_democrat_causes_cancer.html
Comments and questions welcome.
4 Comments
Mike Bryant
That is certainly a good example of false correlations, but I'm interested on how that apply to comments on posts about trucks.
Truckie D
Mike -
See my IB post at: http://voices.injuryboard.com/tractor-trailer-accidents/propaganda-is-an-ugly-word.aspx?googleid=271152
That's the sort of thing I mean.
Steve Lombardi
TD: Interesting point you raise. I’ll have to review the linked blogs to which you refer. If they are wrong you are right to complain and perfectly within your rights to do so. Statistics are an interesting idea, one I’m not entirely comfortable with statistics; never have been, not even in college when I took it as a require course as a psychology major. My reasoning has always been that people see what they want to see and then find a statistical “fact” that supports it and want everyone to believe what they want them to believe.
Do you remember Iran Air Flight 655? It was a civilian airliner shot down by US missiles on Sunday 3 July 1988, over the Strait of Hormuz, toward the end of the Iran–Iraq War. According to the US government, the crew mistakenly identified the Iranian Airbus A300 as an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter. Afterwards the government commissioned a study to find out what went wrong that well trained armed service personnel could look at a radar screen see what should be identified as a civilian airbus and mistakenly identify as an F-14 Tomcat fighter. After spending a million dollars the answer was simple. People see what they want or feel they are expected to see. In your case perhaps the “research” is faulty. The lawyers and blawgers on the IB are well intentioned but they too are human and subject to error. And that’s why your being a part of the IB is so very important. The IB is about truth and justice. So keep fighting for what you believe.
I do enjoy reading what you write, keep it up.
Here is the link to the Iran Air Flight 655 article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
And for those interested in knowing more about statistical hypotheses, listen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX9iMIC6mcg
Mike Bryant
Very true Steve and thanks for the Link, I remember reading that one the first time. I think the two types comment that Joe had covered my opinion pretty well.
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