Question

Week 5 Discussion "Identifying Misleading Information in an Argument" Please respond to the following: Consider the following argument: There are many arguments for the elimination or modification of current U. S. drug laws, but one of the most persuasive involves what negative effects drug laws are having on society in comparison with the effects of the drugs themselves. In the past ten years, most forms of drug use have dropped significantly, especially among teens. Despite this, non-violent drug offenders accounted for 21.1 percent of the federal prison population. First time drug offenders serve, on average, a sentence three months longer than kidnappers, nine months longer than burglars, and thirty-three months longer than sex abusers. In 1992, the average cost of keeping an inmate in either state or federal prison was about $20,000 per prisoner per year. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 455 prisoners per 100,000 population. It is maintaining these prisoners at great expense in an environment where they are unlikely to develop a socially constructive attitude. Perhaps it is time that we reconsider our attitudes toward those who choose to use drugs; failure to do so may cost society even more than it already has. Determine whether or not the argument uses any deceptive statistics. Give your opinion on whether or not the argument has persuaded you. Explain why or why not. Determine the primary ways in which statistics or authority are used in your current position in developing persuasive arguments, and provide examples of such use.

Answer 1

Statistics data can be termed deceptive if any of the following scenarios is true:

• Data source can’t be validated
• Use of averages is not based on any premise
• Any kind of bias affected the results of the statistics data

In the given argument, there is no valid credibility established about the source from where the data was collected. Not even a single fact or statistics is backed by the resource from where it has been derived. Hence, the validity of the statistics can be questionable in the case. We can infer that there can be usage of deceptive statistics in this argument.

No, the argument has not able to win my opinion, as the credibility of the argument is questionable. Without valid establishment of the source, it will be difficult to believe this data.

In the field of management, data plays a very critical role to back your decisions. Hence the usage of authority and statistics is very critical here. Usually our business uses data of industry study conducted by renowned consultants, for use in benchmark study. This data has credibility as the consultants use the standard pneumonic and framework to represent their study. For example: almost 90% of the big MNCs use big data for their information processing. This 90% has been taken from a study conducted by EY consultants in the year 2017. The source of the data is credible and hence, persuasion becomes easy.