3 WAYS TO

SPOT A BAD
STATISTIC
BY MONA CHALABI
KEY INSIGHTS
WHY PEOPLE
DON’T TRUST
STATISTICS? 40%
OF AMERICANS DON’T
TRUST GOVERNMENT
STATISTICS
IT’S GENERAL ● Many a times the statistics
HUMAN TENDENCY may not be true at all.
● There are several factors
TO BELIEVE ONLY
affecting the statistics like
THOSE THINGS sample size, weightage
THEY RELATE TO, given to different questions
THAT MAY NOT BE etc.
THE CASE WITH ● If the analysis is not
SATISTICS ALWAYS conducted properly it may
very well be false.
ARE ABSOLUTELY
STATISTICS It is impossible to create policies
regarding issues if we don’t have
information regarding the issues.
REALLY
For example, to create a policy to
NEEDED? stop racial discrimination, we need
to have the data about racial
segregation. Thus statistics is
absolutely necessary.
3 QUESTIONS TO
SPOT A BAD
STATISTIC
 Many a times there may be a lot of
1 variations in the data set itself.

CAN YOU SEE Thus taking the average of such a

data set can lead to very misleading
UNCERTAINTY conclusions,

? So whenever we see a statistic, the

first step is to heck for the
uncertainty in the data.
 If the sample size used to predict a
SMALL result is too small, then the chances
are that the statistic wrong.
SAMPLE SIZE So another way to check for
uncertainty is by observing the size
of sample.

It must be large eni

 Whenever we see a statistic, we
2 shall try to see if we fit into the
data.
CAN I SEE Even if we cannot directly fit into
MYSELF IN the dataset we shall try to get as
much context as possible.

THE DATA? We shall try to zoom out from one

point and see the variation of
statistic for various sections of the
dataset.
 Many a times we may not be able
AVERAGES to relate to data because the
average was taken into account.
TELL A WHOLE There may be a lot of variations in
DIFFERENT the data, thus the average can tell a
wrong story.

STORY The skew in the data must always

be taken into account for a good
statistic.
 Statisticians many times tend to
3 overlook one fact over another and
that can lead to severely misleading
HOW WAS THE results.
We shall look into what data was
DATA actually collected in a survey and
then also investigate which factor

COLLECTED? in the survey was given precedence

over which factor
As the precedence of factors can
bend the statistic towards either
way.
\RELEVANCE TO
MANAGERS
 Whenever a manager is faced
STRIVE with a statistic, he shall look

TOWARDS into variance in the data set

used and see if there is skew in

SPOTTING it.

UNCERTAINTY He shall always ask his analysts

to never go by the average of
the data, as it can lead to very
misleading conclusions.
 He shall ensure that his analysts are
ENSURE GOOD given good data source to create
statistics.
DATA SOURCE A good data set must have the
following properties:-

1. A big sample size

2. Contains all the data the valid

parameters that may affect the
result.
\Thank You

By Gokul
Ajith