Does the proposer use statistics in an honest way?
According to the 19th Century British Prime Minister and novelist Benjamin Disraeli, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Statistical claims are often made in support of theories that are completely erroneous, either because of deliberate falsification, unconscious bias, or ignorance in the proper use of statistics. One needs to be continually on the lookout for such misapplications of statistics. This is probably the surest way to spot crazy ideas that are wrong. 5. Does the proposer have an agenda? Some areas of science are far removed from politics, but others are not. In particular, in such areas as the environment and human health, the political biases of proposers may play a large role in how honestly they deal with a controversial idea. In such cases, the source of the researchers’ funding may supply important clues as to their political biases. Proposers who are strongly motivated by political biases often put forth ideas that uniformly fall into o
