The declining authority of statistics and the experts who analyse them

Statistics is not trusted because it shouldn't be. It is incredibly easy to lie with statistics. There's even a tutorial: https://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/03... Statistics is ultimately counting, and therefore is incredibly vulnerable to discretion in choosing "what counts". Take the unemployment rate as one example. When people realize that its not equivalent to "people who do not have a job", how can you complain that they trust statistics less? Expert authority is in decline because it…

Ultimately, I feel this headline ("Statistics have lost their power," in case the Guardian changes it later) buries the lede. The dispute is not really about statistics as a way of understanding the world, it is about the epistemology of it, and at its core the idea that a national aggregate is a valid proxy for well-being. It's easy to decry: > Presented with official estimates of how many immigrants are in the country illegally, a common response is to…