Bernard C. Beins
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documented cases of “mutant statistics” in the popular press. These are statistics that are
transformed from the original into variants that lack validity.
Best (2001) referred to “The Worst Social Statistic Ever” (pp. 1–4). A writer claimed
that the number of children killed by guns had doubled every year since 1950. This asser-
tion is patently false because, if true, it would imply that by the turn of the century, a
quadrillion children would have been shot in a single year. The actual statistic, cited by the
Children’s Defense Fund, was that since 1950, the number of children killed by guns had
doubled, a very different figure.
Another instance of ostensible data that has circulated involves the incidence of spousal
abuse on Super Bowl Sunday. Since 1993, an urban legend has spread that there is a nota-
ble increase in abuse on that day (Snopes, 2005). Fortunately for the sake of women, there
appears to be no support for the extravagant claims of abuse on game day. According to
the Snopes urban legends Web site (2005), one organization even mailed letters to women,
advising them not to stay in the same house as their husbands during the football game.
(A less well publicized, but accurate, Super Bowl statistic involves higher traffic fatalities
following the Super Bowl in the state of the game’s loser; Redelmeier & Steward, 2005.)
Another controversial statistic is the claim that 4 million adolescents (children aged 12
to 17) in the United States smoke (Kovar, 2000). This claim by a former Surgeon General
of the United States has many negative implications. However, there are some important
elements that need to be understood in context. For example, almost all of the smoking
took place among the older adolescents, not entirely reassuring, but better than the thought
that many 12 and 13-year olds are smoking. Furthermore, what does it mean to be a
smoker? The researchers categorized anybody who took even one puff in the past 30 days
as a smoker. In truth, 41% had smoked one to five cigarettes on the infrequently occurring
days they smoked. In addition, 31% had smoked less than one cigarette, and that often
meant sharing that single cigarette with friends (Kovar, 2000). Without looking past the
initial data, the situation seems bleak. For the 25% of adolescents who are already addicted,
it is bleak. But for the majority of the “smokers,” the problem is potentially manageable.
Students benefit from considering these problems when learning about operational defini-
tions and methods of measurement.
Assessment
Helping students develop the habit of critical thinking and of developing scientific literacy
is an important task that teachers face. A significant component of the teaching process is
assessment as to whether students are developing as hoped. In this section, there are several
activities that can guide the assessment process.
Modes of Belief
After students learn about Peirce’s (1877) different modes of fixing beliefs, they should be
able to generate examples from their own lives to characterize tenacity, authority, the