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Like you, I am more in Twain's camp. "There are three types of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics." Statistics are great for providing evidence to count
by mathattack 12y ago
Like you, I am more in Twain's camp. "There are three types of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics."
Statistics are great for providing evidence to counteract our intuition, and show empirical holes in logic. That said, they should (like most everything else) always be considered provisional truths as opposed to final truths. Experiments can be misdesigned. Stats can be misinterpreted. And (God forbid!) statistics can be misinterpreted.
- grayclhn 12y agoOf course, there's Mosteller's reply: “It’s easy to lie with statistics, but it’s easier to lie without them.”
- willhinsa 12y agoExcept, the lies created by abusing statistics are pernicious and more difficult to exterminate.
- voxic11 12y agoDo you have any evidence of that? Lies that rely on empirical evidence can be shown to be false, while lies not based on empirical evidence can never be shown to be false.
- npunt 12y agoSome lies not based on empirical evidence can never be shown to be false. However, there's tons of them that CAN be shown to be false. I just bought a house in San Francisco! They're so cheap! (That was a lie, based on no evidence, that can be disproven with evidence. People do this all the time)
- cygx 12y agoThe only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself.