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From what standpoint should we approach the statistics wars? That’s the question from which I launched my presentation at the Statistics Wars and Their Casualties workshop (phil-stat-wars.com). In my view, it should be, not from the standpoint of technical disputes, but from the non-technical standpoint of the skeptical consumer of statistics (see my slides here). What should we do now as regards the controversies and conundrums growing out of the statistics wars? We should not leave off the discussions of our workshop without at least sketching a future program for answering this question. We still have 2 more sessions, December 1 and 8, but I want to prepare us for the final discussions which should look beyond a single workshop. (The slides and videos from the presenters in Sessions 1 and 2 can be found here.)

I will consider three, interrelated, responsibilities and tasks that we can undertake as statistical activist citizens. In so doing I will refer to presentations from the workshop, limiting myself to session #1. (I will add more examples in part (ii) of this post.) Continue reading →