Question

Discuss potential ethical issues related to statistics. These include manipulation of results, improper choice of samples and timelines. Discuss it in the context of a recent article that usees statistics to articlate a position

Answer 1

Statistics can often be mis-used leading to distrust:

1. Flawed correlations: 'one ounce of truth will produce tons of Statistics' - Once something is partially correct and has figures related to it. Other related things can also be proved with some manipulation in the numbers. It generally happens in politics. (Political parties manipulate numbers to win citizens trust so that they can win the elections.) It is easy to quote a lie in the shadow of truth. E.g, manipulated employment rates graph, GDP growth graphs by changing comparison year, etc.
2. Data fishing : 'Statistics can prove anything' - It's mathematics and figures are innocent, easily believable and more convincing. It's psychologically more appealing. A cold of 4° C is always preferred over a cold weather description.
3. Misleading data visualization: 'Fig do not lie. Liars figure' - Figures, though accurate, might be moulded and manipulated by selfish persons to conceal the truth and present a distorted picture of facts to the public to meet their selfish motives. E.g, A political party releases a chart of comparison of no. of road accidents that took place in a year under their power. Instead of comparing it to standard permissible no. of accidents that happen by chance, it compares it to the maximum no. Of accidents that took place under opposition party's rule to justify it's party. It can get dirty sometimes.
4. 'If figures says so it can't be otherwise' - Figures put forward the arguments that may be inaccurate or incomplete and thus might lead to wrong inferences.
5. Today, world is good at generating plenty of data. Most of which is user sensitive and private, this data can be mis-used for personal profits. E.g, hackers can hack your account to withdraw your bank account money, etc.

There are certain ethics that a statistician should follow:

1. Professional integrity and accountability
2. Integrity of data and methods
3. Responsibilities to science, client, etc
4. Responsibilities to research analysis, colleagues , etc

So that, there can't be any favouritism, objectives are met, analysis is reliable and trustworthy, transparency with client/customer/public is maintained, maintain privacy of data and so on.

A recent scenario of mis use of statistics is seen under advertisement :

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 clear example of misleading statistics in advertising, and would fall under faulty polling and outright bias.

The article is taken from the link:

https://www.datapine.com/blog/misleading-statistics-and-data/