The solution, then, is not to give up on statistics, but to become better judges of the numbers we encounter. Too few people, he argued, are comfortable with basic mathematical principles, and this makes them poor judges of the numbers they encounter. No doubt this is one reason we have so many bad statistics. But there are other reasons, as well. Social statistics describe society, but they are also products of our social arrangements.
Statistics are tools, used for particular purposes.
Thinking critically about statistics requires understanding their place in society. Bad statistics come from conservatives on the political right and liberals on the left, from wealthy corporations and powerful government agencies, and from advocates of the poor and the powerless. In order to interpret statistics, we need more than a checklist of common errors. We need a general approach, an orientation, a mind-set that we can use to think about new statistics that we encounter. We ought to approach statistics thoughtfully.