Statistics Essentials For Dummies (56 page)

How do you protect yourself against misleading results due to data fishing? Find out more details about the study: How many tests were done, how many results weren't significant, and what was found to be significant? In other words, get the whole story if you can, so that you can put the significant results into perspective. You might also consider waiting to see whether others can verify and replicate the result.

The Almighty Anecdote

Ah, the anecdote — one of the strongest influences on public opinion and behavior ever created, and one of the least statistical. An anecdote is a story based on a single person's experience or situation. For example:

The waitress who won the lottery

The cat that learned how to ride a bicycle

The woman who lost 100 pounds on a potato diet

The celebrity who claims to use an over-the-counter hair color for which she is a spokesperson (yeah, right)

An anecdote is basically a data set with a sample size of one — they don't happen to most people. With an anecdote you have no information with which to compare the story, no statistics to analyze, no possible explanations or information to go on. You have just a single story. Don't let anecdotes have much influence over you. Rather, rely on scientific studies and statistical information based on large random samples of individuals who represent their target populations (not just a single situation).

Appendix
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Tables for Reference