Explain what role you think statistics have in our society:
Statistics show us so many things whether it be how many people around the world have green eyes or the weather forecast. they are also used for insurance, political campaigns, in the stock market and so many other things.
Explain anything new that you have learned about the importance of statistics in our society:
After reading the article, I learned that if a researcher wants to know if one method of treating a disease is more affective than another, it is important that they know the statistics to show the percentage of the time each method worked on groups of patients. Also, there is a part that talks about headlines of “Released Prisoner Doesn’t Commit Murder” and based on what we see reported, our mental image of percent of prisoners that actually murder someone after being released is likely to be much greater than what happens in reality. Statistics give us a way to look at the big picture and they are a way to get a more accurate way of understanding than what we get from individual observations.
Describe the different types of problems with statistics
- statistics can be fabricated.
- some other problems arise because of the way statistics are gathered, like bad sampling and biases introduced into polls and surveys.
- Some statistics are true but misleading
- the problem with ranking statistics are that they are not always clear about what the categories are that are being ranked.
- Percentages: news sources typically try to make the number sound as dramatic as they can.