Statistics can be misused whether by accidental or intentional design. This misuse leads to fallacious reasoning that will mislead an audience.
Statistical Misuse can be divided into 3 types of errors
When we are dealing with statistical misuse, the 4P Framework (developed by the Math Teachers of Fuhua Secondary School) can help us critically analyse and tackle the statistical issue through 4 guiding questions:
Practice. What is the specific practice that has been observed that is a misuse of statistics? (Eg. Conducting a survey on a student's general school experience after handing out free ice-cream during recess.)
Problem. What is the problem associated with the negative practice? (Eg. The students were primed to give more positive responses in the survey.)
imPact. How does the misuse of statistics impact the respondent / reader? (Eg. This may cause the students to bias their survey results more positively..)
imProvement. How can the statistical misuse be corrected? (Eg. We can conduct the survey on a normal school day.)