In yet another instance of statistics being made to say whatever someone wants them to, not what they really might be saying, the Wall Street Journal features “The Numbers Guy” column Friday, where Carl Bialik offers some background into the much ballyhooed “report” earlier this week about the estimations of how many PDAs, cellphones, and laptops were “lost” in taxicabs. While extrapolation of a sample is typical statistical analysis, Bialik points out some potential flaws in this particular study, including how “PR people interviewed drivers with specific cab companies that cooperated.”
All that said, the study can’t be completely discounted, but it shouldn’t be treated as word, IMHO.
