As a person who understands and uses statistics to solve problems in business you know that you must use the right statistical tool to compare data against theories. If the data doesn’t support the theory under investigation, you either reject or revise your theory. (You don’t revise the data!)

However, you understand that pitfalls may exist in the data collection process and the reasoning process. For instance, you know to watch for:

1. Making conclusions about a large population from a small sample.
2. Making conclusions from nonrandom samples
3. Attaching importance to rare observations
4. Using poor survey methods

Working with someone in class or in your company…explain/discuss each pitfall and how it might impact good problem solving in the business environment. You may write a short narrative of 75-150 words or you may create an audio/video file to be viewed by members of the class.