Use of statistical measurement systems to study human behavior in a social environment
Social statistics is the use of
statistical measurement systems to study
human behavior in a social environment. This can be accomplished through
polling a group of people, evaluating a subset of data obtained about a group of people, or by observation and statistical analysis of a set of data that relates to people and their behaviors.
supporting governments in times of peace and war[12]
Reliability
The use of statistics has become so widespread in the social sciences that many universities such as
Harvard, have developed institutes focusing on "quantitative social science." Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science focuses mainly on fields like
political science that incorporate the advanced causal statistical models that
Bayesian methods provide. However, some experts in causality feel that these claims of
causal statistics are overstated.[13][14] There is a debate regarding the uses and value of statistical methods in social science, especially in
political science, with some statisticians questioning practices such as
data dredging that can lead to unreliable policy conclusions of political partisans who overestimate the interpretive power that non-robust statistical methods such as simple and multiple
linear regression allow. Indeed, an important axiom that social scientists cite, but often forget, is that "
correlation does not imply causation."
S. Kolenikov, D. Steinley, L. Thombs (2010), Statistics in the Social Sciences: Current Methodological Developments, Wiley{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
Blalock, Hubert M (1979), Social Statistics, New York: McGraw-Hill,
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Irvine, John, Miles, Ian, Evans, Jeff, (editors), "Demystifying Social Statistics ", London : Pluto Press, 1979.
ISBN0-86104-069-4
^
abcHoffman, Frederick (1908). "Problems of Social Statistics and Social Research". Publications of the American Statistical Association. 11 (82): 105–132.
doi:
10.2307/2276101.
JSTOR2276101.
^Willcox, Walter (1908). "The Need of Social Statistics as an Aid to the Courts". Publications of the American Statistical Association. 13 (82).
^Mitchell, Wesley (1919). "Statistics and Government". Publications of the American Statistical Association. 16 (125): 223–235.
doi:
10.2307/2965000.
JSTOR2965000.
^Pearl, Judea 2001, Bayesianism and Causality, or, Why I am only a Half-Bayesian, Foundations of Bayesianism, Kluwer Applied Logic Series, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Vol 24, D. Cornfield and J. Williamson (Eds.) 19-36.