Use and misuse of quantitative and graphical Information in Statistics. An Approach in Teaching

Cécile Hardouin (1, 2) , Lucette Carter (3)

1 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
2 SAMOS - Statistique Appliquée et MOdélisation Stochastique
3 UPN - Université Paris Nanterre

Miscellaneous examples of misleading statistical data or interpretation are presented in a form suitable for students in mathematics or Social Sciences during a first course of statistics. The aim is to promote critical thinking when confronted (mainly by the media or scientific papers) by information that is biased, incomplete, poorly defined, or deliberately oriented towards a preconceived target. Starting with the simple manipulation of Simpson paradox, the emphasis is put on the need for counfounding in the analysis of relationship between variables.

Mots clés: teaching statistics; misleading information

Domaines: Statistiques [math.ST]

Cécile Hardouin, Lucette Carter. Use and misuse of quantitative and graphical Information in Statistics. An Approach in Teaching. 10th Int. Conf. Mathematics Education into the 21st Century Project. Models in Developing Mathematics Education, Sep 2009, Dresden, France. pp.Carter. ⟨hal-00382120⟩