Statistical literacy is the ability to understand and reason with statistics and data. The abilities to understand and reason with data, or arguments that use data, are necessary for citizens to understand material presented in publications such as

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. However, scientists also need to develop statistical literacy so that they can both produce rigorous and reproducible research and consume it. Numeracy is an element of being statistically

literate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

and in some models of statistical literacy, or for some populations (e.g., students in kindergarten through 12th grade/end of secondary school), it is a prerequisite skill. Being statistically literate is sometimes taken to include having the abilities to both critically evaluate statistical material and appreciate the relevance of statistically-based approaches to all aspects of life in general Wallman was president of the American Statistical Association and Chief of Statistical Policy, United States Office of Management and Budget. or to the evaluating, design, and/or production of scientific work.

Promoting statistical literacy

Each day people are inundated with statistical information from advertisements ("4 out of 5 dentists recommend"), news reports ("opinion poll show the incumbent leading by four points"), and even general conversation ("half the time I don't know what you're talking about"). Experts and advocates often use numerical claims to bolster their arguments, and statistical literacy is a necessary

skill A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of w ...

to help one decide what experts mean and which advocates to believe. This is important because statistics can be made to produce misrepresentations of data that may seem valid. The aim of statistical literacy proponents is to improve the public understanding of numbers and figures. Health decisions are often manifest as statistical decision problems but few doctors or patients are well equipped to engage with these data. Results of

opinion polling An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions ...

are often cited by news organizations, but the quality of such polls varies considerably. Some understanding of the statistical technique of sampling is necessary in order to be able to correctly interpret polling results. Sample sizes may be too small to draw meaningful conclusions, and samples may be biased. The wording of a poll question may introduce a bias, and thus can even be used intentionally to produce a biased result. Good polls use unbiased techniques, with much time and effort being spent in the design of the questions and polling strategy. Statistical literacy is necessary to understand what makes a poll trustworthy and to properly weigh the value of poll results and conclusions. For these reasons, and others, many programs around the world have been created to promote or improve statistical literacy. For example, many official statistical agencies such as Statistics Canada and the Australian Bureau of Statistics have programs to educate students in schools about the nature of statistics. A project of the International Statistical Institute is the only international organization whose focus is to promote national programs and drives to increase the statistical literacy of all members of society. Numerous resources and activities, as well as a body of international experts help maintain a very successful campaign across the continents. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe has taken the notion of statistical literacy as the subject for its fourth guide to making data meaningful. Recognising the obligation of its royal charter to promote the public understanding of statistics, in 2010 the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

launched a ten-year statistical literacy campaign.

Models of statistical literacy

Experiments in the sciences, business models and reports, use statistics. People involved in these fields generally have studied the meaning of statistical quantities, such as

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

s and standard deviation. Many colleges and universities require an introductory course in statistics as part of a professional program. Data visualization can contribute to either understanding or misunderstanding of the data or of the argument being made with the data. Studies have shown that human beings’ estimations of probabilities are heavily influenced by context and wording. Statistical reasoning may be difficult to develop and refine, which has led to labeling this type of reasoning as not intuitive. For example, people typically underestimate the probability of being involved in a car accident because their everyday interaction with vehicles gives the impression that they are safer than they actually are. Likewise, they tend to overestimate the probability of being attacked by a shark because of media or other influences. The book is about how people actually think, decide and remember (based on psychological experimentation). "Why is it so difficult for us to think statistically? We easily think associatively, we think metaphorically, we think causally, but statistics requires thinking about many things at once, which is something that ntuitionis not designed to do." p 13 "Even statisticians were not good intuitive statisticians." p 5 "The lesson is clear: estimates of causes of death are warped by media coverage. The coverage is biased toward novelty and poignancy." p 138 "When people were favorably disposed toward a technology, they rated it as offering large benefits and imposing little risk; when they disliked a technology, they could think only of its disadvantages, and few advantages came to mind." p 139 " intuitive thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions, and the planning fallacy as it was before I made a study of these issues. I have improved only my ability to recognize situations in which errors are likely..." p 417 Gambling is one setting in which a lack of statistical literacy can be costly. Simple probability theory helps the individual either estimate or calculate the probabilities involved with games of chance. However, most individuals fail to approximate, for example, the probability of being dealt a full-house in a game of poker. Not understanding these probabilities causes the individual to wager more or less than they would knowing at least an estimate of the probability. Increasing individuals’ statistical literacy and knowledge of probability through classroom applications, textbook examples, and other methods, would lead to more informed citizens, capable of making more informed decisions, or perhaps not. The definition of statistical literacy and opinions about it have been somewhat historically variable. Before 1940 some statistical skills passed to the sciences. Some statistics was then taught in grade school, "So a degree of statistical literacy will be universal in the future...". More recently, expectations have been higher. "'Statistical Literacy' is the ability to understand and critically evaluate statistical results that permeate our lives...". Those statistical results often originate from inferential methods which reached college statistics textbooks in about 1940. Statistics continues to advance. A lack of statistical literacy has long been condemned under many labels. H.G. Wells has been cited as saying that statistical understanding will one day be as important as being able to read or write but he may have been referring more to the older idea of political arithmetic than modern statistics.

References

External links

The Berlin Numeracy Test
a validated, online 3 minute psychometric test of statistical literacy *Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education
GAISE

International Statistical Literacy Project Statlit.org: a collection of articles and books about teaching statistical literacy

Sense about Science and Straight Statistics: Making Sense of Statistics
Layman's introduction to reports of statistical analyses {{DEFAULTSORT:Statistical Literacy

Literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

Literacy

Promoting statistical literacy

Models of statistical literacy

See also

References

External links