'Exaggerations' threaten public trust in science, says leading statistician
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent from on (#2V51K)
David Spiegelhalter, president of Royal Statistical Society, says sloppy attitude to statistics leads to misleading claims and draws parallels to rise of fake news
A sloppy attitude towards statistics has led to exaggerated and unjustified claims becoming commonplace in science, according to one of Britain's most eminent statisticians.
Speaking ahead of his president's address to the Royal Statistical Society, Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, said that questionable practices such as cherry-picking data and "hacking statistics" to make findings appear more dramatic threatens to undermine public trust in science.
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