Social Science Statistics Blog

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1 November 2007

One take on science in the media

I often share the mixed feelings about media coverage of scientific papers that Amy discussed in her post yesterday on the statistics of race. Apparently we aren't the only ones; Mark Liberman at Language Log linked to yesterday's Dilbert cartoon:

Language Log is one of my favorite blogs, and many of the posts there are relevant for those of us reporting our own statistical results and trying to promote better coverage in the media. Some of my favorites:

Two Simple Numbers
Thou Shalt Not Report Odds Ratios
Hand-waving in the Washington Post
IQ and birth order
The "happiness gap" and the rhetoric of statistics

I know that I've committed some of these sins myself; in fact, I think I need to go reinterpret some odds ratios...

Posted by Mike Kellermann at 12:05 AM