Your professor comes to class partway through the semester and announces that homework requirements for class will be doubling for the remainder of the semester, you will have to buy two additional expensive books for class, and she will also be assigning an additional 30-page research report due in addition to your final exam. When the class incredulously asks why she is doing this, she explains that she was listening to the local news that morning and saw a news report that researchers had done a survey of over 3,000 people and 85% of respondents had indicated that they thought college students should do more reading, more homework, and write more papers. Fortunately your professor gives you a chance to talk her out of this change. What questions should you ask about the research she

Question

was relying on to convince her that she is relying on mutant statistics? (Damned Lies and Statistics)

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Varies. The most likely causes are from issues related to inappropriate generalizations. First, there may be questionable definitions (p. 40) of “more work,” “more reading,” and “more writing.” How the survey questions were worded would have a big impact on how people answer. Second, who was sampled is absolutely critical. A survey of 3,000 textbook publishers, parents, and English teachers would yield very different results than surveying 3,000 currently enrolled college students.