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IB TOK Essay which received a moderated mark of 8/10 (A grade)

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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 ...

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tok essay a grade
ib tok

Institution Secondary school
Course
Biology
School year 2

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May 2021
Word count: 1600

“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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