Question

select all that apply
which three of the following are not proper and ethical activities for a statistician in working with data?
use samples that represent only a desired part of a population.
present his conclusions with clarity and integrity.
report only those statistics that support his conclusions.
remove outliers that bias the data too far in one direction.

Explanation:

1. Using a sample that only represents a desired subset of the population introduces selection bias, which is unethical as it distorts the true population picture.
2. Presenting conclusions with clarity and integrity is a core ethical practice for statisticians, so this is proper.
3. Reporting only statistics that support a predetermined conclusion is cherry-picking data, which misleads and violates ethical standards.
4. Removing outliers solely because they skew data in an undesired direction (without valid statistical justification, like verifying they are measurement errors) is unethical, as it manipulates the dataset to fit a preferred outcome.

Answer:

• Use samples that represent only a desired part of a population.
• Report only those statistics that support his conclusions.
• Remove outliers that bias the data too far in one direction.