Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucsfcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!arnold From: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL) Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics Subject: Re: Watch them closely when they quote statistics Message-ID: <569@ucsfcgl.UUCP> Date: Sat, 13-Jul-85 00:10:52 EDT Article-I.D.: ucsfcgl.569 Posted: Sat Jul 13 00:10:52 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 14-Jul-85 08:22:26 EDT References: <1519@watdcsu.UUCP> <1520@watdcsu.UUCP> Reply-To: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold) Distribution: net Organization: UCSF Computer Graphics Lab Lines: 28 Xref: watmath net.women:6381 net.politics:9921 [ yum yum ] In article <1520@watdcsu.UUCP> dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi) writes: >I just noticed another interesting feature of the diagram that showed >women as 35% of the work force... the diagram is a picture of a >single-file line of men at the back and women at the front. Not only >did the person who drew the diagram draw 25% of the figures as women to >supposedly represent the 35% of the work force that women comprise, but >the women in the drawing were drawn CLOSER TOGETHER than the men, >making them look like an even smaller portion of the total. >-- >David Canzi (This is a followup to a long article on abuse of statistics) As has been occasionally mentioned (far too rarely to suit me) not only can statistics be manipulated to favor given points of view, charts are a great source of abuse. The best way to educate yourself about what to be wary of is to buy and read "How to Lie With Statistics", by Darrell Huff, copyright 1954, published by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York. I would suspect it is quite a bit out of print, but it is commonly available in used book stores. You will never find yourself at a loss again when someone spouts statistics which make no sense, but you can't quite figure out why. As a matter of fact, you will see many statistics and charts which you thought make sense don't. Ken Arnold