Dirty Data: Share the data in a way that is functionally inaccessible

In my intro stats class, we discuss shady data practices that aren't lying because they report actual numbers. But they are still shady because good data is presented in such a way as to be misleading or confusing.

These topics include:

Truncating the y-axis

Collecting measures of central tendency under ideal circumstances

Manipulate online ratings (I didn't write the blog post about this yet, but it is coming).

Relative vs. Absolute Risk

AND HERE IS ANOTHER ONE:

Insurance companies were asked to provide price data RE: the Transparency in Coverage Rule in the Consolidatedated Appropriations Act of 2021. Google that if you want to know more about that, I'm not going into that. Not my lane. That said, it is an appealing idea. Let's have some transparency in our jacked-up healthcare system.

And the insurance companies provided the data, but in a way inaccessible to most people. Like, all people, maybe? Because they just splurted out 100 TB of data. So, they totally complied with the law. But they were Shady.

The problem, and a possible solution, are detailed in this blog post from Alex Stein.

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Ways to use funny meme scales in your stats classes

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Leo DiCaprio Romantic Age Gap Data: UPDATE

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If your students get the joke, they get statistics.

Gleaned from multiple sources (FB, Pinterest, Twitter, none of these belong to me, etc.). Remember, if your students can explain why a stats funny is funny, they are demonstrating statistical knowledge. I like to ask students to explain the humor in such examples for extra credit points (see below for an example from my FA14 final exam). Using xkcd.com for bonus points/assessing if students understand that correlation =/= causation What are the numerical thresholds for probability? How does this refer to alpha? What type of error is being described, Type I or Type II? What measure of central tendency is being described? Dilbert: http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Kill%20Anyone Sampling, CLT http://foulmouthedbaker.com/2013/10/03/graphs-belong-on-cakes/ Because control vs. sample, standard deviations, normal curves. Also,"skewed" pun. If you go to the original website , the story behind this cakes has to do w...

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