Social Science Space

Statistics are not the final objective answer to things. They can be interpreted in lots of different ways, even when none of those ways is wrong per se. That opens up a space for public debate, which is good news, but it also opens up a space where statistics can either be lauded as the truth (when they are not), or dismissed out of hand as ‘biased’.

Professor of sociology and criminal justice, Ronet D. Bachman uses statistics and research methods to investigate topics in the fields of criminology and criminal justice. The knowledge gained can be applied to everyday life to help us become better students, citizens, critical thinkers, job applicants and decision makers.

Barry Bosworth, the Robert V. Roosa Chair in International Economics at the Brookings Institution, and Danny Pfeffermann, director of Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, will receive the 2018 Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics.

While they aren’t as unpopular as politicians or journalists, people who work with statistics come in for their share of abuse. “Figures lie and liars figure,” goes one maxim. And don’t forget, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” But some people are the good guys, doing their best to combat the flawed or dishonest use of numbers. One of those good guys is the guest of this Social Science Bites podcast, David Spiegelhalter, professor of the public understanding of risk at Cambridge and current president of the Royal Statistical Society.

Neil Salkind, a child development psychologist whose academic writing endeared him to generations of students struggling with statistics, has died at age 70. Salkind, a professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, died from melanoma at his home in Lawrence, Kansas on November 18.

Howard Silver looks at two distinguished individuals who have toiled for long periods of time in an area that receives attention only from those who understand the importance of data and statistics to the well-being of a democratic state

Hans Rosling, a epidemiologist whose gained global attention with twin messages of the power of stats and of hope, has died.

We likely all remember the maxim about statistics and lies. Statistical data do not allow for lies so much as semantic manipulation, explains Jonathan Goodman. In short, numbers drive the misuse of words.

In the latest podcast from Family Business Review, assistant editor Karen Vinton speaks with Tyge Payne of Texas Tech University about the […]

How do you make the world better place? There is no lack of prescriptions, but one of the surer bets, […]

While it might seem natural for so-called Big Data to supplement, improve or replace existing datasets and statistics, or provide entirely new statistical outputs for government agencies, some careful footwork is needed before heading too far down that path, argues Rob Kitchin.

[We’re pleased to welcome Robert E. Evert of Texas Tech University. Dr. Evert recently published an article in Family Business […]