Surprise! It is now in the news that the Autism rate is skyrocketing. I guess the new and stricter DSM criteria are not in effect yet. People are reacting already. I was in a big box store the other day and it was being discussed on the loudspeaker. They said how this is the fastest growing developmental disability. At the register I was asked if I would donate a dollar for children with Autism. I tend to be rather sceptical of charities until I get to know them better but I figured it was only a dollar. It seems coincidental that this news came out of the research pipeline just in time for Autism Awareness Month (and April Fools' Day). Is this all connected to global warming- I mean climate change? Now seriously... I'm not saying that the Autism rate is not growing as I don't have concrete evidence to the contrary but there are many ways to look at statistics. First the world's population is steadily increasing. This means more people with a lot of things. Second is we have increased awareness, increased services available, and more children being tested for Autism than the "rate" will soar. Diabetes is on the increase also and there are many factors which could be involved. However, if the mass media launched a huge campaign to raise awareness while getting people to rush to the doctor to get tested and catch it in the early stages, there will be a major "diabetes epidemic". It will be an even more dramatic increase if they develop a better testing method and included "pre-diabetics" in the statistics. There are also many in the world with undiagnosed HIV. If the government decided that every citizen was going to get an HIV test and the undiagnosed were all of a sudden diagnosed then one can then say that the HIV infection rate has skyrocketed overnight. People would then wonder what has caused this and propaganda from all sides of the aisle would be running rampant.
I don't doubt that awareness of everything is a virtue and that we should work towards educating the public on a lot of issues, but I do think people need to also have "propaganda awareness" and learn how to unbiasedly interpret statistics. People is the mass media usually have degrees and have probably taken statistics and maybe even critical thinking classes. That said, they should know better but they also know how to manipulate statistics. They have a responsibility to help the general public put things in proper perspective. An example of what I'm talking about not necessarily relating to Autism is this: Do a web search on "fastest growing fallacy" and see what comes up.
I don't doubt that awareness of everything is a virtue and that we should work towards educating the public on a lot of issues, but I do think people need to also have "propaganda awareness" and learn how to unbiasedly interpret statistics. People is the mass media usually have degrees and have probably taken statistics and maybe even critical thinking classes. That said, they should know better but they also know how to manipulate statistics. They have a responsibility to help the general public put things in proper perspective. An example of what I'm talking about not necessarily relating to Autism is this: Do a web search on "fastest growing fallacy" and see what comes up.
