IB TOK Essay which received a moderated mark of 8/10 (A grade)
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Course
Biology
Institution
6
This is my TOK Essay which scored a 8/10 (A grade) and that helped me to achieve an overall A grade in TOK. “Statistics conceal as much as they reveal.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. Written by an IB student who graduated with 44 points. This essay required a lot ...
“Statistics conceal as much as they reveal.” Discuss this claim with
reference to two areas of knowledge.
I like to think of statistics as a lens through which knowers try to
approximate reality. We interpose an element between us and reality, but our
goal is to approach it. Given the context of the words “conceal” and “reveal” with
regards to statistics in this prompt, my overall position is that I somewhat
disagree: if statistics are used circumspectly, they have the capability to reveal
more than they conceal, thus giving us a moderately accurate representation of
reality. Firstly, while I believe that this title essentially juxtaposes how statistics
can both dissimulate and disclose knowledge, a distinction is in order:
“concealment” can result from the deliberate distortion of statistics [1] but also
from its inherent issues, such as the fact that they may ignore the intricacies of a
certain population, but rather deal with generalizations based on a sample; they
fundamentally always discard certain portions of reality and thus inevitably
“conceal”. Still, I believe it is unfair to treat statistics in different areas of
knowledge (AOK) as a tool which always “conceal” as much as they “reveal”. This
led me to ask: to what extent can statistics reveal knowledge? I will explore this
question in the AOKs of natural and human sciences since statistics in these
areas are amply used.
Due to the rigorous nature of the scientific method, statistics are inherently
used in the natural sciences, especially in hypothesis testing. Consider
biostatistics and medical statistics. For my IB Biology IA, I used an analysis of
, variance (ANOVA1) to determine if there was a statistically significant difference
between six different concentrations of copper sulfate and the mean rate of
catalase activity. At the significance level of 0.05, there was a statistically
significant difference between both variables. Subsequently, the particular
biostatistic I used “revealed” knowledge. Further, it did not “conceal” any aspects
of reality; this was supported by the accepted scientific theory.
However, clinical research is a good example of where statistically
significant results do not always imply clinical significance. More importantly,
statistics in medical research can be manipulated and used in a deceitful way in
order to reach a desired conclusion. In 2014, a group of researchers concluded
that adding beef to people´s diet can elicit favourable effects on cardiovascular
disease, because after it was consumed by the subjects, it caused a reduction in
their LDL cholesterol [2].2 However, the researchers simultaneously halved the
subjects´ saturated fat intake.3 Consequently, no matter what was added to the
subjects´ diet, their LDL cholesterol would necessarily go down. Therefore, it is
fair to claim that the sample is not representative and discarded aspects of reality;
a regular person wouldn't halve their saturated fat intake in order to then
determine if adding beef to their diet would decrease their LDL cholesterol. While
the statistics used in this study per se do not “conceal”, the outcome of the study
does. The statistical test used does not consider their reduced saturated fat intake
which is a form of “concealment”, leading to a misleading conclusion and
application to real life. Thus, when examining the outcome of a clinical study
1
A statistical test used to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences
between the means of three or more independent (unrelated) groups. (Laerd Statistics)
2
High LDL cholesterol is strongly associated with increased cardiovascular disease.
3
It is widely accepted by the medical community that a reduction in saturated fat intake leads to
a reduction in LDL cholesterol.
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