By Taarini Gurjar
When making an argument or proving a point, statistical evidence is almost always the immediate choice to back up your claim, and for good reason. Statistics are a form of concrete evidence that make a claim plausible, reliable and credible. However, sometimes we get blindsided by these obvious positives of statistics and are blind to the idea that that statistics may actually conceal as much as they reveal.
The first way of manipulating statistics is cherry picking. Cherry picking is the act of specifically picking out only the most beneficial information from a cluster of information. To put it in context, take an example of a cherry tree. If a cherry picker were to show the observer only the ripest cherries on the tree, the observer would erroneously assume that all the fruit is healthy. However, in reality, that is not the case. By cherry picking, the final conclusion you reach is completely tainted by personal opinions. So the conclusion reached is no longer a comprehensive idea of the general opinion, rather a masked truth. This specific type of data manipulation has been especially noticed in the veterinary industry during clinical trials on animals.
Graphical representation is also a prime example of how statistics conceal as much as they reveal. For instance, let's say you have two sets of data, both on 100. The first set 90 and the other 95. If you were to graph this starting from zero, the bars would be quite close to each other. However, if you were to start from ninety itself, there would be a drastic difference between the two sets. This is a deceptive way of manipulating statistics which, more often than not, goes unnoticed.
Statistics have always been a principal way of revealing information and in most likelihood will remain as one. Therefore, it is vital to check the source and validity of your data, and to always be aware that numbers can be exploited to narrate a lie.
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