Uncle Tom mentioned that his friends once told him that statistics can sometimes

Question

Uncle Tom mentioned that his friends once told him that statistics can sometimes be used to mislead. Being a responsible financial planner, you agree with him. Highlight three (3) possible concerns in business or statistical aspects regarding the approach used here. Also, if you have a free hand on the project starting from sampling to analysis, how would you conduct the project analysis and what recommendations would you give for the problem in question? Please keep your answer within 800 words (indicate your word count).

Explanation / Answer

1)

Statistics can sometimes be used to mislead and sometimes it is done on purpose so as to gain something out of it

For example, if a person wants to convince someone about a product or a research then by showing statistics he will be able to do it

If the data is not standardized then the above statistic could be very misleading and can help the person to fool you and get his commission or let’s say grant ie he will be monetarily benefited

2)

The human intuition can be fooled by showing misleading and incorrect graphics and charts

For example if a bar chart has 2 columns but column 1 is let’s say 45 and column 2 is only 60 but is stretched in the height to look like 90

We may claim that column 2 results are twice as much as column 1 results by just showing the graphs and not the values 45 band 60 and people will draw false conclusions out of it

3)

We can also mislead by taking a skewed sample in the data collection stage  

For example, while collecting a sample data for the polls or votes if the data is only collected from a specific region of a place and not a scattered data collection from all over the place then we only get a skewed projection of the poll result as we get major data points from a particular cluster of the place

This result is skewed and it can be used to mislead the people

Process of conducting a project analysisi:

1. Understand the business domain

2. Collect the required data

3. Make sure that the data is not skewed and is organized

4. Standardize the data to make it uniform

5.Take appropriate sample size

6. Calculate the relevant statistic

7. Compare the statistic with the critical value and conclude the results

8. Make sure to standardize the graphs so that it represents the results appropriately

9. Infer the results from the analysis and check for any biases which might have crept in .

Word Count 345

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse U
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.