Can People Lie With Statistics?

650 Words2 Pages

Can People Lie With Statistics? Although numerical presentations have the potential to be useful tools towards assessing complex situations, they can also be misleading. With this in mind, why are people so susceptible to believe statistical information as truth? One plausible theory is that the data contained in such a report agrees with the thoughts and beliefs of the person studying them, meaning a person may tentatively believe what they want to believe. Another possibility is lack of knowledge to dispute the findings in question. While it can be argued that some people attack or have issue with what they do not understand, for the purposes of this topic, the connotation of dispute shall be with findings or credible evidence of their own to dispel another person’s work. Acceptability of Spinning the Truth Regardless of the reason or type of approach employed, it is never tolerable for a person to adjust or slant results from research to arrive at any particular conclusion; for such actions can have disastrous consequences to others. Also, the issue of ethics becomes a f...

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