| -- End Ad Box ---> | | | | statement of a precise number. Indeed, our truth is |
| The preparation for this short Project revealed the | | | | composed of our understanding, but we must see |
| growing concern on how a statistical survey may be | | | | events in their relationships. Yet there exist more |
| or is being misused to support the vested interest of | | | | ways of abusing the science of Statistics by |
| the funding agencies. | | | | deliberately distorting the results and by providing the |
| To find a political article a search was conducted | | | | partial picture not presenting the complete story. |
| online and the choice was made to select the article | | | | The case in our chosen article is very similar to the |
| Poll suggest Saskatchewan NDP continues to lead | | | | last way of misuse of Statistics. Namely the article |
| that was published in the Canadian Internet Network | | | | does not reveal any meaningful insights and the fact |
| on Monday, September 06, 1999. This is a | | | | is that later the commending lead of the NDP party |
| pre-election article that discusses the leading position | | | | did not materialize at all at the election time. The |
| of the NDP party of the other parties sitting the | | | | article suggests that the survey is one-sided and |
| support of the statistical survey. | | | | therefore cannot reveal the truth of the reality. No |
| Abuses of statistics can be done in many ways. It | | | | matter the NDP later did not win the elections. |
| can be a bad sample, a small sample or the way the | | | | The conclusion is that the search for the truth, as |
| pictographs are drawn. It also can have misleading | | | | stated in is not a number or a fixed reality. People |
| graphs or loaded questions that are worded in a way | | | | think that the statistical studies are a search to find |
| to elicit a desired response. There is an old saying | | | | the truth. The reality is that the agencies that fund |
| that if you do not get a positive answer to your | | | | these studies participate in manipulating the supposed |
| question, change the way you pose the questionÂ… | | | | resulting truth. |
| Statistics can also be misused by the inclusion in a | | | | What can be done to fix this? |