Yazid EL Berdai
Introduction to Critical Thinking
Ahmed Kabel
October 3, 2019
Statistical Reasoning Homework
How can the use of statistics be often problematic?
It can be problematic because they might not necessarily prove what they appear to
prove. This leads to many questions such as who did the study, what exactly are the statistics
measuring, who was asked, how were they asked, and compared with what. So, when looking
at statistic one needs to look at several other information surrounding it so that they are not
fooled.
What is exactly the problem with unknowable and biased statistics?
There are a variety of obstacles to getting accurate statistics for certain purposes. These
obstacles contain difficulties in identifying relevant persons or events, people’s unwillingness to
provide truthful information, peoples failure to report events, and physical barriers to
observing events. We need to ask how they were determined.
Explain how averages can be misleading?
They can be misleading because they can be confusing. They can be confusing because
there are many types of averages such as mean, median and mode. In this case when the word
average is included the reader won’t know what average the author is talking about.
How can statistics be used to support the wrong conclusion?
Statistics can be used to support the wrong conclusion when communicators use
statistics that prove one thing but then claim to have proved something different.
Explain how statistics can deceive by omission of information.
They can deceive by omission of information because they are incomplete due to the
omission of information. Sometimes the numbers and percentages might fool us into thinking
what they are defending is good but once we come to find out information that wasn’t included
it might change our whole point of view.
Provide real-life examples of statistical reasoning to illustrate two different issues with using
statistics discussed in the chapter. You will need to bring the sources of your statistics to class.