Readers blog: Lies, damned lies and statistics as you've never thought of them before

The saying “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics” was popularised by Mark Twain, who attributed it to the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Lies are part and parcel of everyday life and are usually minor in nature unless told under oath, which is a criminal offence. People quickly see through lies and take what the liar is saying with a grain of salt. How often have we heard the quips, “I wouldn’t believe a word out of his mouth” or “She wouldn’t recognise the truth if it jumped up and bit her on the nose.” So the lie usually falls into the categories of gossip, half-truths, and “economical with the truth”.

A damned lie on the other hand is more serious in nature. It’s told with malice, malevolence and intent to harm another person’s reputation. Such a lie can spread like wildfire and can cause a great deal of emotional and psychological distress to the victim and her/his family. Even when the damned lie is proven groundless and unfounded, it often leaves a residual stain. “I never believed it myself, but there’s no smoke without fire,” is a popular Irish oxymoron. Of the three categories – lies, damned lies and statistics – the damned lie is the most reprehensible.

Statistics on the other hand are subjective, misleading, self-serving, mischievous and occasionally, accurate. They are often used to promote a particular opinion. They may be based on conversations that never took place, on actions that never happened, on surveys that were never conducted. Their findings may be constructed on figures that were massaged until they yielded a desired outcome.

If any “Paddy, who likes to know” has the audacity to question the methodology of sampling, the reliability of the data or the validity of the results, he can easily be fobbed off with pseudo-intellectual terminology such as “sample population, unknown variables, demographic spread, analytical instrument and technological interpretation.”

The term “facts is facts” has little relevance in the vested world of surveys and statistics.

On the contrary, all statistical data can be collated, adjusted and varnished to spin any kind of a yarn. That’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I’m not speaking a word of a lie.

If you don’t believe me, I can produce irrefutable statistical evidence which was taken in a private survey commissioned by a leading international organisation that wishes to remain anonymous!

Billy Ryle

Tralee

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