When you were a child, you might have seen bottles high on a shelf in your garag

Question

When you were a child, you might have seen bottles high on a shelf in your garage, out of your reach. “That’s poison,” your parent might have warned, pointing to the container. “Don’t touch.” It nonetheless had some use. It was there for a reason. This example illustrates a principle: Items that can be misused often have a valid use, and vice versa. An average (e.g. mean, median, and mode) is not an exception; it can be useful, but if it is misused or misinterpreted it can be destructive.

In what way might an average be misused? Alternatively, how might an average be misinterpreted? For instance, how can a misinterpreted average pertain to stereotyping? How can we avoid misuse or misinterpretation of averages? Provide a specific example to illustrate your explanation.

Explanation / Answer

Data is a powerful tool that can be used or misused in various ways. Many people tend to believe anything that is supported by statistical analysis. Since they do not understand the data or the analysis, they assume that it is true. In fact, math classes experienced by most of the population were ruled by the “correct answer”. This has led many people to believe that numbers presented in statistical analysis must always be right as well. Unfortunately, statistics is ruled by subtleties and various interpretations of data can be both right and wrong. The popular use of the term "average" is way different from the mathematical term, but they get used interchangeably. An average person is always used for describing certain characterstics about the population which leads to misinterpretation and stereotyping. An average american is obese but that does not mean that everyone is like that.

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