Answer — Exercise 4
7 - Vital statistics·Outcomes Advanced - Student's Book
Question
Listen to an extract from a radio programme about statistics. Why is each question in Exercise 3 important to consider when talking about statistics?
Answer
- The research can be used to manipulate and sell stuff (agrees with presenter + food company example). If funded for a purpose, researchers may be pressurised to get ‘correct’ results. They may get sacked or lose funding.
- Self-selected groups through social media tend to attract people with similar views.
- If the sample is too small, it exaggerates ‘grouping effects’ of self-selection.
- Peer reviews filter out poor research more than anonymous publications.
- may not have both absolute and relative figures when comparing may not have a full series of figures (just one or two years) or information that shows if it is a trend or an anomaly
- Wrong conclusions can be drawn from data – may highlight an absolute or relative figure to present a ‘good’ result / conclusion. Correlations do not prove causal links.