Statistics and Skepticism
In my ongoing friendly debate over the merits of evolution vs. intelligent design, I’ve come to the realization that way too many people put faith in information that they don’t really understand. While this sometimes takes a humorous bent, such as the pages detailing the many evils of Dihydrogen Monoxide and the sinister effects of bread, it’s definitely something people need to learn to survive in the modern world.
I’ve found a simple rule of thumb - when dealing with any source of information, no matter how trusted, you should always view it with a degree of skepticism and ask at least one of the following:
- Who is target audience?
- What is the objective of the individual(s) presenting the information?
- What sort of bias could the individual(s) presenting the information have?
- Is the information presented actually meaningful - or has it been carefully twisted and pruned to present a particular point-of-view?
As the sheer volume of information grows exponentially, and the ability to remove or reduce bias in presentation diminishes, the ability to detect and identify bias and outright prevarication becomes increasingly important.