a.) Why do people say “lies, damn lies and statistics”?

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is a phrase describing the persuasive power
of statistics to bolster weak arguments. It is also sometimes colloquially used to doubt
statistics used to prove an opponent's point.

What does it take to avoid lying with statistics?

 Keep your analysis and deliverable as simple as possible...but not too

simple. If you are not preparing the final deliverable - statisticians normally

do not - make sure your own work is being correctly summarized and

interpreted.

 Be wary of automated or semi-automated modeling. Sometimes they are

the only option but only in certain situations. It’s also important remember

that even automated models are not all the same. “…all models are wrong,

but some are useful.”

 Just because "everyone does it" does not mean it's OK. Even professional

statisticians can develop bad habits.

 Be on the lookout for cognitive biases, including your own! In the real world,

logic and evidence lose more battles than they win, and sometimes we are
our own worst enemies

c.) Find two examples from newspapers or websites where statistics are
used in a way that is deceptive.

Examples of misleading statistics in healthcare 

This list of misleading statistics fallacy examples would not be complete without a case
in the healthcare industry. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the general public was forced
to consume scientific information in the form of data visualizations to stay informed
about the current developments of the virus. But this didn’t come easy. The lack of
statistical literacy from the public, paired with the fact that organizations didn’t always
share accurate statistical information, lead to a widespread of misrepresentation of data.
Christopher Engledowl & Travis Weiland wrote an insightful article called “Data
(Mis)representation and COVID-19: Leveraging Misleading Data Visualizations For
Developing Statistical Literacy Across Grades 6–16”. Here they speak about two use-
cases in which COVID-19 data was used in a misleading way. Let’s look at one of them
closely. 

In May 2020, around 5 months after COVID-19 started spreading around the world, the
US Georgia Department of Public Health posted a chart that aimed to show the top 5
counties that had the highest COVID-19 cases in the past 15 days and the number of
cases over time. 

 Misleading statistics in advertising

Next, in our list of bad statistics examples, we have the case of a popular toothpaste
brand. In 2007, Colgate was ordered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of
the U.K. to abandon their claim: “More than 80% of Dentists recommend Colgate.” The
slogan in question was positioned on an advertising billboard in the U.K. and was
deemed to be in breach of U.K. advertising rules.

The claim, which was based on surveys of dentists and hygienists carried out by the
manufacturer, was found to be misrepresentative as it allowed the participants to select
one or more toothpaste brands. The ASA stated that the claim “… would be understood
by readers to mean that 80 percent of dentists recommend Colgate over and above
other brands, and the remaining 20 percent would recommend different brands.”

The ASA continued, “Because we understood that another competitor’s brand was
recommended almost as much as the Colgate brand by the dentists surveyed, we
concluded that the claim misleadingly implied 80 percent of dentists recommend
Colgate toothpaste in preference to all other brands.” The ASA also claimed that the
scripts used for the survey informed the participants that the research was being
performed by an independent research company, which was inherently false.

Based on the misuse techniques we covered, it is safe to say that this sleight off-hand
technique by Colgate is a clear example of misleading statistics in advertising, and
would fall under faulty polling and outright bias.