1. Can you find examples in the popular press of the
TASKInstructions: Read all materials. APA format, answer all questions⦁ Descriptive
Statistics: In six sentences or more, explain how you would use the descriptive statistical
procedure(s) at work or in your personal life.⦁ Misuse of Statistics: As we will see in the
next 12 weeks, statistics, when used correctly, can be a potent tool in managerial decision-
making.Statistical techniques are used extensively by marketing, accounting, quality
control, consumers, professional sports people, hospital administrators, educators,
politicians, physicians, etc…As such a vital tool, statistics are often misused. Everyone has
heard the joke (?) about the statistician who drowned in a river with an average depth of 3
feet or the person who boarded a plane with a bomb because “the odds of two bombs on the
same plane are lower than one in one millionth.”2a- Can you find examples in the popular
press of the misuse of statistics?⦁ How to Display Data Badly: Read the article “How to
Display Data Badly” by Howard Wainer. It is attached here: How to Display Data Badly and
posted under the Content tab (after you choose the Content tab, choose Course Content and
Session 1 from the list on the left).Next, read Chart Junk Considered Useful After All, by
Robert Kosara, https://eagereyes.org/criticism/chart-junk-considered-useful-after-all3a-
In your own words, describe “Chart Junk.”3b- When should Chart Junk be avoided? When is
it useful3c- Include an image or link to an example of the worst data display you have seen
at work or in the media (not in Wainer’s article).3d- Wainer gives rules for how to make bad
charts & graphs. Which of Wainer’s rules describes what’s so bad about your example?⦁
Discussion: Simpson’s Paradox: A family member can go to one of two local hospitals for
heart surgery.Checking the history for the past year, you find that each of the two hospitals
has performed cardiac surgery on 1000 patients. In hospital A, 710 patients survived
(71%). In hospital B, 540 (54%) survived.Based on the numbers presented, which hospital
do you think is superior in cardiac surgery?Indeed, hospital A is better. Correct?Now, let’s
look at more data. The below chart summarizes three categories of patients (those entering
in fair, serious, and critical condition) and the survival rate from surgery (in percent) for the
two local hospitals.Patient Entering ConditionLooking at the data broken down in this way,
we see that Hospital B has a higher success rate in all three categories of patients. Still,
when averaged all together, Hospital A has a higher overall survival rate. Based on the
numbers presented⦁ which hospital do you think is superior in cardiac surgery?