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Drew Hurley
Santa Fe Community College
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This Program Combines Critical Thinking Skills with Logic
to Assist You in making Sociological Decisions.
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When evaluating political, social, or historical claims, it is always wise to screen all assertions through the following filters of credibility: lies, unreliability, propagandistic style, and deceptive statistics.
The most successful techniques for lying make use of the following forms of deception:
1. Lie about a group, but not a specific person or organization. Lie about ''cops'' or ''indians.''
2. Lie about the dead.
3. Lie about a public figure.
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4. Imply guilt by association. ''Communists support child care laws. Therefore, child care laws are communistic.''
5. Impute wicked motives, purposes, or consequences. ''The welfare system encourages illegitimacy and laziness.''
6. Use ''weasel'' words which imply more than they literally say. ''Try Hokum pills and see if you don't feel better.''
7. Quote out of context. The Bible says, ''Let him who stole steel....''
8. Create the appearance of elaborate documentation. It is easy to footnote wild accusations and unsubstantiated charges.
9. Repeat the Lie at every occasion.
10. Suggest, ''where there is smoke there is fire...''
The following issues look at the question of the reliability of the data or claims being asserted.
1. Who is the author? Is the author an authority on this subject? What are his (her) credentials? What are the author's known biases? Is the author emotionally stable?
2. Who is sponsoring this view? Who publishes it, distributes it, or promotes it? Is there a particular vested
interest involved? What do they expect to gain or lose?
3. Examine the factual content of the claim. Are the essential points accurate? Can they be verified? Are the claims relevant?
The following points consider the question of style. Are the assertions primarily descriptive or
propagandistic?
1. Are familiar propaganda techniques used? Look for instances of Name calling -- ''socialized medicine,'' or ''rich man's law;'' glittering generalities -- ''the sanctity of the home,'' or ''patriotic support;''
Testimonials -- ''the Jeffersonian principle of ...'' or ''Our men and women in the armed services
pray that ...;'' Just Plain Folks -- ''everyday horse sense tells you that ...'' or ''the simple faith of my mother...;''
card-stacking, using only selected facts that support one's case; and join the Bandwagon --
''everyone's doing it,'' or ''every thinking person realizes .....''
2. Is the style accusatory, or conspiratorial? Or is the style informative, platitudinous, and/or tautological?
3. Is the statement cluttered with meaningless words and mystical expressions?
4. Is the claim consistent with known facts? Id it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true.
Statistics are often used to inform. They are also, unfortunately, used to deceive. The following tricks are frequently used to create a devious statistical impression.
1. The Underfed Sample. A survey of 3 people is far from sufficient. Make sure that the sample uses an appropriate selection of the population being studied.
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2. The Unbalanced Sample. The kinds of people in the sample need to be selected on a basis
consistent with their proportion of the population.
3. The Load Base. Comparisons must use the same methods of contrast id their differences are meaningful. This selectively includes and/or excludes specific population groups used for their comparison.
4. The Top Heavy Average. This is a technique that manipulates the average (mean, or in some
cases median) by selectively emphasizing distorted averages. For instance, AVERAGE salary of a major league baseball player
in 1997 was $1.2 million (because most teams had a few players with big contracts), while the median salary was $400,000.
5. The Microscopic Comparison. This technique greatly exaggerates relatively small differences.
6. The Elastic Graph. Graphs are designed to illustrate certain points of comparison. By enhancing or diminishing the scale of the graph, the visual impression of the viewer can be manipulated. Question the scale of every graph.
7. The Leaning Poll. Opinion polls can easily be manipulated by either using an unrepresentative sample, or by asking leading questions and/or severely limiting responses to the questions asked.
8. Using statistical associations as the basis for Implied Causation. Please remember, science can only establish a correlation; it cannot demonstrate a cause.
It is better to be safe than sorry. You need to learn to skeptical about all assertions and claims. Ask for the evidence, and consider it carefully. Use these guidelines to help you.
Think.
Examine.
Evaluate.
drewhurley@claw.org
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Produced at Bits & Bytes Farm, 1998
Program Designed and Created by:
Drew Hurley
Santa Fe Community College
3000 NW 83rd Street
Gainesville, FL 32606
ClipArt provided by:
Imageline, Inc.
401 East Main Street, Suite 100
Richmond, VA 23219
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