The Politics of Fear & Happiness
It’s been said that statistics are like a string bikini. What they reveal is interesting but what they conceal is vital.
Here are results from different surveys that are both interesting and in some ways seem contradictory or maybe confusing.
According to this survey conservatives are happier than liberals. And this article says that conservatives are generally more fearful and less rational than liberals. They are also less traveled and read less.
Maybe ignorance is bliss after all.
But then you have this survey that indicates that those socialist Danes are the happiest people on earth. I would attribute that not to their left leaning nature but to their tendency towards riding bicycles.
Yes there are interesting statistics on all types of things out there. I should know, I do it for a living. Everybody is trying to measure something.
I give up on trying to makes sense of all the statistics. Just pass me the SI Swimsuit edition.
Now that is interesting.
Tags: statistics
October 29th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
well i do suppose that if you want stats to show something then you’ll find a survey or a way to do it…i have also given up on trying to make sense of all the statistics…only at a slightly earlier age than you.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
So having read the psychology article, does this mean I can use my liberal leanings as an excuse for a messy house?
October 29th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
It might be that you are a closet conservative and your disregard for your environment has now outted you.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
A wise person once told me that you can get statistics to tell you just about anything.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Ouch!! Two insults in one comment. First you insinuate that I may be a conservative, and then you tell me I have no regard for the environment?
October 30th, 2008 at 4:32 am
I used to think that statistics were right up there with white lies, black lies, drama, and religion… until I took a college course on quantitative analysis. They convinced me that statistics are guaranteed to be 100% representative of the population at least 70% of the time, ±20, when using an alpha of .05. But really what they taught me was to read more into methodology, and to consider a multiplicity of potential threats to validity when seemingly significant data rears its ugly head.