It’s always possible to fudge the numbers and decide that some values are unimportant and some are super important and lo and behold, the calculation turns in your favour! In the end it’s no better than deontology or simply saying “I think this is good”; there is no point trying to vest it with a semblance of objectivity that just isn’t there.
Is this not simply the fallacy of gray?
As saying goes, it’s easy to lie with statistics, but even easier to lie without them. Certainly you can fudge the numbers to make the result say anything, but if you show your work then the fudging gets more obvious.
I agree that laying out your thinking at least forces you to specifically elucidate your values. That way people can criticise the precise assumptions they disagree with, and you can’t easily back out of them. I don’t think the “lying with statistics” saying applies in its original meaning because really this is entirely about subjective terminal values. “Because I like it this way” is essentially what it boils down to no matter how you slice it.
Is this not simply the fallacy of gray?
As saying goes, it’s easy to lie with statistics, but even easier to lie without them. Certainly you can fudge the numbers to make the result say anything, but if you show your work then the fudging gets more obvious.
I agree that laying out your thinking at least forces you to specifically elucidate your values. That way people can criticise the precise assumptions they disagree with, and you can’t easily back out of them. I don’t think the “lying with statistics” saying applies in its original meaning because really this is entirely about subjective terminal values. “Because I like it this way” is essentially what it boils down to no matter how you slice it.