Hmmm, interesting observation. I would for all practical purposes be the last person to support eugenics. Again, statistics are only as good as the questions asked. Biased questions yield biased outcomes.

@t1nick Statistics are at their most useful when no questions are involved. In other words, when past outcomes are observed rather than future outcomes asked.

@Petter

The basis for any research begins with a question. You cannot do research without beginning with a queztion, no matter what you are researching.

@t1nick The question should preferably begin "what happened when ..."
Note the past tense.
Then it can be tested by "What happens if ..."

@Petter

Questions are tailored according to the intended research. There is no such thing as one question that fits all resesrch

@t1nick Like wife beating, for example.

@Petter

When I teach my students how to generate a hypothesis, I use an IF >THEN>WHEN structure. The IF statement sets up the original condition (Control variable). The THEN statement introduces the variable to be changed (Independent variable), and the WHEN statement re-states the variable change, then makes the prediction (actual hypothesis) and represents the Dependent variable.

@t1nick In my coding days, <when> statement meant every time a global variable changed, it was to be retested against a condition, and if positive a new action selected.
It was very useful in reducing the size of coding, whilst speeding up the reaction. For example, in a space invaders game.
WHEN Missile=Enemy : Explode.

@Petter

Its been awhile since I wrote any code. But I remember

@t1nick A little over 30 years in my case. Except simple HTML code, but that doesn't count.
My children, though, are both serious coders, and my 12 years old grandson is developing some nifty stuff.

Your point? A statistical test is only as good as the questions asked. A good statistical analysis should be worded as unbiased and as neutral as possible, yet aimed as accurately as possible towards the target isdue.

@t1nick My point was humour. I threw together a list of heavily biased questions.

@anglophone

Ahhhh! Lol.

No statistics cannot. Interpretation by unscrupulous people and uninformed, gullible consumers can be. Statistics cannot. If your statistics are manipulated, then ther outcome is worthless. Statistics say what statistics are designed to say, nothing more, nothing less. A poor test says more about the designer than it does about the test.

@t1nick Agreed. My own observation is that some statistics are foisted on an unsuspecting public by people who should know better. My favourite is "Trans-Monaco Airlines has never had a flying accident [but we don't have any planes!].".

@anglophone

You illustrate an interesting point. What responsibility do average American citizens, or the citizens of any First World country, have to educate themselves in assessing credibility of any source. What this last 5 years surrounding our Trump experience has illuminated is that, at least in the US, is that our citizenry has become intellectually lazy (not really new news).

But have taken this intellectual laziness beyond what would be expectef of a nation of our resources and education access. The eagerness to suspend reasonable certainty and facts for unreasonable conspiracies and unsubstantiated claims. It befuddled the mind that we have slid so far down this rabbit hole.