This can be seen as an entire class of fallacies that result in presenting statistical data in a very biased way, and of course, interpreting statistics without questioning the methods behind collecting and presenting the data. The many methods are outside the scope of this reference, but if you really want to jump in here, and see how deceptive statistics can be, get this reference, How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff, a 1954 classic that is just as relevant today as it was in his time.
Examples:
- Did you see that bar graph in USA Today? It showed a HUGE spike in the moral decline of our country!
Synonyms: statistical fallacy/fallacies, misunderstanding the nature of statistics [form of], fallacy of curve fitting, the fallacy of overfitting