When highlighting statistics of researches they should not be abused or wrongly interpreted, Indian Statistical Institute, Economic Research and Social Science Division, Prof Manoranjan Pal said.
He made these remarks at a seminar, organized by the Centre for finding studies, Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) under the theme `Uses and Abuses of Statistics '.
Central Bank officials including Asst Governors, R Jayalath and P Ranasinghe were also present.
Prof. Pal who obtained his PHD degree from Indian Statistical Institute and the Master in Economics was invited by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to deliver a lecture on the importance of presenting accurate statistics without abusing them.
Making a famous quote from Benjamin Disraeli on statistics, Prof Pal said there are three kinds of lies and they are lies, damned lies and statistics.
He also highlighted a famous quote from historian Andrew Lang and said some people use statistics as a drunk man uses lamp posts for support rather than illumination.
Speaking further on abuses of statistics, Prof. Pal said when there are 1,936,201 people living in a district , it is better to say 1.9 million people because the number is changing over time.
He said it is not true that we always need sophisticated statistical techniques to solve a problem. Speaking further on the abuses of statistic, he said every time public should be created the awareness of statistics and they should also be aware that there are some misuse of statistics.
During the presentation Prof. Pal talked various subjects related to the `Uses and Abuses of statistics' including `Methods of Drawing Sample and collecting Data', `Simple Solutions to be Sought', ` Interpret Results Correctly',` Data Manipulation' and `Paradoxical Situations'.
Concluding the presentation, Prof. Pal said mathematics cannot abusive, because two plus two is always four, but in statistics anybody can manipulate and post to the public.
"If so, the public will see it in different ways. Therefore, we should avoid the wrong use of the statistics for the benefit of public,"
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