[five characters are standing together: orange, blue, green, purple, and pink]
A study shows 1 in 5 stickmen to be homosexual
[blue points to themselves proudly]
Well I am gay, so I guess it means that I am the only one in this group
[green talks to blue, who looks confused]
That’s where you’re wrong
I too am gay, you’re not the only one here
[orange rants angrily at blue and green, who are both confused]
Well I’m straight and this is not how statistics work, one of you two has to be LYING
[purple asks a question while blue and green stare at them]
Okay but I’m bi, where do I fit in this?
[pink speaks to us, smugly]
Well I guess this proves social sciences are whack and can’t be trusted
I love drawing conclusions from flawed data
I am very smart
https://thebad.website/comic/statistical_anomaly
A more apt example would be a scientist based the universe constant size on the color of their cat’s fur.
Either would work, my example has the advantage of being true ( Einstein’s greatest mistake, according to him).
To be clear, I’m not arguing that social science is as legitimate as astonomy. Only that all the bad social science doesn’t invalidate the entire field, it is possible to do good social sciense (just sadly quite rare, for various reasons)