I just checked this after forwarding to to someone and I don't see the faulty graph :( Might the error have been caught and changed??
Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [email protected] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:33:00 -0500 >From: "Christopher D. Green" <[email protected]> >Subject: [tips] Mississippi has highest teen birth rate, CDC says - Yahoo! >News >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > > For those of you who like to follow bad > presentations of statistical data in the news, > here's a real doosie. > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090107/ap_on_he_me/med_teen_births > > Note that in the graph that it says these numbers > are "per 1,000 births" but then next to the top bar, > it says "68.4%" (rather than 68.4 per 1000). So, > actually only 6.84% of births in Mississippi are to > teen mothers. > > I checked the source -- a CDCP report -- and it does > not make the % mistake. The graph seems to have been > compiled by AP. > > What may be worse, the base used (per 1000 live > births) will confuse many, who will assume that > 68.4% of (presumably female) *teens* are geting > pregnant in MS. > > Best regards, > Chris > -- > > Christopher D. Green > Department of Psychology > York University > Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 > Canada > > > > 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 > [email protected] > http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ > > ========================== > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
