Identifying Misleading Statistics
Additional Resources
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Alonso, W., & Starr, P. (1989). The politics of numbers:. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
This source goes into detail about one of the reasons that statistics are manipulated. It discusses how a large portion of government funding to state and local communities is a result of the presentation of certain statistics. Alonso is an economist who graduated from Harvard and then studied demographic changes. Starr has a Ph. D. from Harvard and was the senior advisor of Bill Clinton's health care reform plan.
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Donald, B. (2016, November 22). Stanford researchers find students have trouble judging the credibility of information online. Retrieved from https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-researchers-find-students-have-trouble-judging-credibility-information-online
I found this source to support my statement that people can not recognize fake news when they see it. This study done by Stanford shows that only a minimal number of high school and college students can evaluate misinformation in the media.
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4 Ways Statistics Can Be Misused - and How to Avoid Them. (2016, September 06). Retrieved from https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/4-ways-statistics-misused.html
This source outlines some basic ways that statistics can be misused.
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Huff, D., & Geis, I. (2006). How to lie with statistics. W.W. Norton &.
This book is very informative and covers a wide range of techniques that are used to mislead an audience with numbers. Darrell Huff is an internationally recognized writer primarily for this book and its ability to teach complex ideas to a large audience. In 1965 Huff testified before Congress (hired by the Surgeon general) to disprove any 'misconceptions' of a link between smoking and poor health.
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Leetaru, K. (2017, February 02). Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics: How Bad Statistics Are Feeding Fake News. Retrieved October 4, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/02/02/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics-how-bad-statistics-are-feeding-fake-news/#4972a1950ca1
The author states that along with simple number manipulation, sampling bias and selective definitions are major parts of false conclusions. Leetaru is a contributor to Forbes magazine and a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Cyber & Homeland Security.
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Liddell, M. (2016, January 14). How statistics can be misleading. Retrieved October 4, 2017, from https://youtu.be/sxYrzzy3cq8
This is a short youtube video but it provides some key terms that I will research further. It addresses three examples of how statistics sometimes fail to tell the whole story. Liddell is a contributor to TEDEd.