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Misuses of Statistics

Statistics consists of tests used to analyze data. These tests provide an analytic framework within which researchers can pursue their research questions. This framework provides one way of working with observable information. Like other analytic frameworks, statistical tests can be misused, resulting in potential misinterpretation and misrepresentation. Researchers decide which research questions to ask, which groups to study, how those groups should be divided, which variables to focus upon, and how best to categorize and measure such variables. The point is that researchers retain the ability to manipulate any study even as they decide what to study and how to study it.

Potential Misuses:

• Manipulating scale to change the appearance of the distribution of data
• Eliminating high/low scores for more coherent presentation
• Inappropriately focusing on certain variables to the exclusion of other variables
• Presenting correlation as causation

Measures Against Potential Misuses:

• Testing for reliability and validity
• Testing for statistical significance
• Critically reading statistics