Statistics for the Rest of Us: Mastering the Art of Understanding Data Without Math Skills (Advanced Thinking Skills Book 4)

One of the most effective ways to get a representative sample is through a process of random sampling. Random sampling means that the sample group is chosen completely randomly (often by computer);

P-values are a probability and thus are expressed as a number between zero and one. Lower p-values mean that results are more statistically significant; higher p-values mean the results may be due to chance.

Another way of thinking about it is that p-values tell us how likely it is that another experiment would have the same results.

This chapter will look at five common pitfalls in statistics and how you, the average consumer, can recognize them.

you know that two phenomena are correlated, but you incorrectly label one as the cause of the other.

In this last step, you might take the findings from a sample and apply them, drawing inferences and conclusions about the larger population.

Pitfall #5: Getting causation backwards

Clusters are exactly what they sound like: where notable groups of data fall.

Question 2: Can the results be replicated in another study? This question asks about a study's reliability or how likely you are to get the same result if you performed the test again.