Lies and Statistics

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Most of the different daily posts that appear on this blog are organized into so-called “blog series”. For example, there’s a series called lies and statistics: since I believe statistics are very important in the field of human rights, I also give examples of the abuse of statistics. I don’t think it’s a good idea to be blinded by love, and I apply that to my love for statistics. So if you’re tempted to take the statistics on this blog (or elsewhere) too seriously, take a look at this:

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (1): Correlation
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (2): Extrapolation
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (3): Growth Rates and Cherry Picking
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (4): Manipulating the Y-axis Scale in Graphs
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (5): (Not) Using a Left and a Right Y-axis
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (6): Statistical Bias in the Design and Execution of Surveys
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (7): “Drowning” Data
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (8): Failure to Divide by Population
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (9): Too Small Sample Sizes in Surveys
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (10): How (Not) to Frame Survey Questions
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (11): Polarized Statistics as a Result of Self-Selection
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (12): Generalization
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (13): You’re Not Measuring What You Think You Are
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (14): Leaving Out Relevant Explanatory Variables
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (15): Measuring Public Opinion But Leaving Out a Chunk of the Public
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (16): Measuring Public Opinion in Dictatorships
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (17): The Correlation-Causation Problem and Omitted Variable Bias, aka “Jumping to Conclusions”
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (18): Comparing Apples and Oranges
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (19): Fun With Percentages
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (20): Teen Pregnancies
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (21): Misleading Averages
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (22): Objects in Statistics May Appear Bigger Than They Are
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (23): The Omitted Variable Bias, Ctd.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (24): Mistakes in the Direction of Causation
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (25): Misleading Headlines
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (26): Objects in Statistics May Appear Bigger Than They Are, Ctd.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (27): Jumping to Conclusions, Ctd.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (28): Push Polls
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (29): How (Not) to Frame Survey Questions, Ctd.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (30): Failing to Correct for Inflation
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (31): Common Problems in Opinion Polls
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (32): The Questioner Matters
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (33): The Omitted Variable Bias, Ctd.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (34): The Narcissism of Small Differences
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (35): Sample Sizes, Ctd.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (36): Manipulating the X-axis Scale in Graphs
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (37): When Surveyed, People Express Opinions They Don’t Hold
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (38): The Base-Rate Fallacy
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (39): Availability Bias
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (40): The Composition Effect