True...Lies (Part 2)

Aside from bias polls, the collected data that is calculated can greatly affect the overall public view of it. There are several different ways to present an “average”. For example, there is the actual arithmetic average, median, mean, and mode. Most will give you different results.

(The sum of x multiplied by f divided by n)

x= numbers to be added

f= frequency of the numbers

n=how many numbers were added

Arithmetic average is essentially the same as the mean. This equation allows one to take raw data and process it, resulting in the average. However, this is not the same as the mode or median.

In most cases, when analyzing data, the median, mean, and mode are going to be so close to the same number that either form will be close to the others. Yet, there are some cases that using the mode or mean will yield a much more desired result.

For example, lets suppose that one is trying to display the average annual income per a household. It is their desire to make America look as though Americans are living well.

Using fictitious data we can make a conclusion;

40% of the population makes $20,000 annually,

50% make $60,000 annually,

and lastly 10% make $1,000,000 annually.

Now if one were to use the mode for displaying this data the results would display that the average annual income of an American citizen is $60,000. However, this would overlook that 40% of the population is only making $20,000. Moreover, this would exclude the 10% making $1,000,000. The mode consists of the most common figure. This figure is used to represent the whole, thus $60,000 can be assumed to be the average annual income.

Lets change the figures a little;

15% make $20,000,

12.5% make $60,000,

45% make $100,000,

17.5% make $1,000,000,

10% makes $100,000,000

Using median to get our “average” we can see that the annual income is $100,000, furthermore we are excluding 80% of the population simply be manipulating the way in which we compute the data. Median is obtained by finding the number exactly in the middle. 45% has exactly 27.5% above and below. Lets assume that the percentage is represented by a number of people, the mean would be $10,230,500 annual income per a household. A drastically different number from $100,000

This is true to most statically data displayed. Before using the data as fact, look at the source and how objective it is.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/election-map-2012/president/?tid=rr_mod

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/newyorktimes-poll-watch/index.html

I need to give credit to "How to lie with statistics" By Darrell Huff, Published in 1954 for providing the majority of my data.