Aside from the thoroughly disturbing tendency some people have to see conspiracy everywhere, the media, politicians, social media users and even your Aunt Molly seem to seize on statistics to support their misguided perspectives.
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” This aphorism is attributed both to Benjamin Disraeli, 19th century prime minister of Great Britain, and repeated by American author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens.) (https://ipa.co.uk/knowledge/ipa-blog/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics, or http://www.twainquotes.com/Statistics.html) Why would this belief endure?
First is the desire to be right. If you believe honestly that Democrats are blood-drinking pedophiles, you can find evidence (or lack of evidence) that supports your claim. If you believe that Republicans are secret fascists at best and actual Nazis at worst, same thing.
Second, is a serious lack of numeracy, the mathematic equivalent of literacy. Because few people have any background at all in stats, everything needs to be reduced to its simplest form to appeal to the hoi polloi. The mistrust of anyone in authority for the past, oh, 60 years or so, has fueled the feeling that the media, the politicians, the universities and businesses are all out to hoodwink us.
Finally, a lack of civics education. Most people don’t know the three branches of the federal government, and the functions of each (hint, they are co-equal and not subordinate to each other. They don’t know the difference between law and regulation, nor the relationship of population to House of Representatives, or the function of the Senate.
These three issues lead to misinterpretation of not only complex issues, but of the research that underpins the reports we see in the media. Add in the paucity of specialists in the media, and you have a recipe for problems.
I’m teaching a quantitative research methods course this semester, and we spend a lot of time talking about details such as validity, reliability, sampling, experimental design and the rules for content analysis. This is (I hope) creating a comfort with stats and a skepticism and curiosity about research results, survey reports, and the like.
I don’t “blame the media.” The idea that there is a global media conspiracy is laughable on the face for anyone who has either been IN the media (67, KWNK-AM, Simi Valley!) or who has dealt with the media (in my case, KeyBank, Goodyear, National City, a host of schools, etc.) The media aren’t organized enough to participate in, let alone plan and conduct a conspiracy!
What we need here is better education for people that breeds critical thinking and both literacy and numeracy. And maybe, that will give us more than a fighting chance to survive this age.
