Mark Twain was quoted as saying There are three kinds of lie

Mark Twain was quoted as saying \"There are three kinds of lies:, lies, damned lies, and statistics.\"

Given what you know about statistics so far in the course, what do you think this means? Explain in your own words, there is no right or wrong answer, but please fully explain your response.

Give an example of an instance in which statistics, or statistical tools, are abused. Please provide a link to your source (website, newspaper, etc...).

Solution

I think this means that as Statistics always turned up into probability or estimators, the exact answer is not available, hence nothing proved.

One of the example is this ppt.

http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQFjABahUKEwjulqqmjaTIAhWSWo4KHWVKCl4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.svsd.net%2Fcms%2Flib5%2FPA01001234%2FCentricity%2FDomain%2F1009%2F1.3-UsesAbusesOfStatistics.pptx&usg=AFQjCNF9qnfcxWVdBsGdeyDc4yqflqoWrQ&sig2=BKc6HD9BkONdyBNVP1yrlA&bvm=bv.104317490,d.c2E