Page 253 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS236 Eva L.
about the fact that statistical thinking is nowadays needed in all sciences, it
is an indispensable element of the operating culture.
It is of course obvious that statistical knowledge, culture have different
challenges for the „producers” of statistics and for users of statistics in broader
terms too.

2.4. Reputation of statistics, statistical culture
The credibility of statistical data has been questioned nearly since the birth
of statistics. There is no other science, profession surrounded by so many
jokes, anecdotes, and frequently even serious criticism. What is the reason of
the constantly present lack of trust?
I am convinced that among the reasons we should basically highlight two
considerations; on the one hand the presentation of data are often linked to
interests, but it is also frequent that users do not possess the necessary
statistical knowledge. Users of statistical data – often – use statistical data,
information according to their interests and they manipulate the data.
There are numerous examples which show that users of statistical data
are not aware of (or do not take into consideration) the exact meaning of
the data, definitions, the relations between the pieces of information (they
do not know the metadata). It is frequent that users are not aware of the
data sources and the way data are produced, they do not know for what
purpose and how data can be used.
The question arises how nowadays practising statisticians and statistics
teachers are able to cope with the stereotypes, how they can convince users,
public opinion that statistics can be credible as well. This requires of course a
thorough statistical knowledge and enhance of statistical culture.

2.5. The grouping of users and their statistical culture
There are of course many examples for the grouping of users. The most
frequent solution is to classify users into groups according to the institution
they belong to. I guess, when we are dealing with the statistical culture
(statistical knowledge) of users better results can be reached if we classify
users according to the way they use data.

I personally prefer the grouping I heard years ago from Danish statisticians.
The colleagues from Denmark had defined three user groups: „tourists”,
„farmers” and „miners”.
„Tourists” are the users who do not use statistical data on a regular basis,
in certain cases they may be interested in one data, indicator, and they try to
find it via internet. „Farmers” are the users who use data for their operation on
a regular basis. Finally, „miners” are the users who analyse deeply a given
subject, or some specific field of statistics regularly.

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