Page 58 - Statistics for Dummies

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Part I: Vital Statistics about Statistics
Feeling the Impact of
Misleading Statistics
You make decisions every day based on statistics and statistical studies that
you’ve heard about or seen, many times without even realizing it. Misleading
statistics affect your life in small or large ways, depending on the type of
statistics that cross your path and what you choose to do with the information
you’re given. Here are some little everyday scenarios where statistics slip in:
✓ “Gee, I hope Rex doesn’t chew up my rugs again while I’m at work. I heard
somewhere that dogs on Prozac deal better with separation anxiety. How
did they figure that out? And what would I tell my friends?”
✓ “I thought everyone was supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day,
but now I hear that too much water could be bad for me; what should
I believe?”
✓ “A study says people spend two hours a day at work checking and sending
personal e-mails. How is that possible? No wonder my boss is paranoid.”
You may run into other situations involving statistics that can have a larger
impact on your life, and you need to be able to sort it all out. Here are some
examples:
✓ A group lobbying for a new skateboard park tells you 80% of the people
surveyed agree that taxes should be raised to pay for it, so you should
too. Will you feel the pressure to say yes?
✓ The radio news at the top of the hour says cellphones cause brain
tumors. Your spouse uses his cellphone all the time. Should you panic
and throw away all cellphones in your house?
✓ You see an advertisement that tells you a certain drug will cure your
particular ill. Do you run to your doctor and demand a prescription?
Although not all statistics are misleading and not everyone is out to get you,
you do need to be vigilant. By sorting out the good information from the suspi-
cious and bad information, you can steer clear of statistics that go wrong. The
tools and strategies in this chapter are designed to help you to stop and say,
“Wait a minute!” so you can analyze and critically think about the issues and
make good decisions.

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