Most people take the information they are given (television news, newspaper, internet) as fact. Most of the reporting is, in fact, fact. However, in my studies I’ve learned to be a little more critical or skeptical of all the percentages and figures that bombard us every day. Credibility is HUGE in the world of statistics and research. RELIABILITY and VALIDITY are crucial.I am about to wade into the waters of research like never before in order to complete my master’s thesis. Academia wants proof. Cold, hard, undisputed, peer-journaled proof. Proof that can be considered synonymous with fact. Sometimes that’s easy. I wish we could just point to a few Wikipedia links or Googled references, but they want more. Research. Proof. I’ll be devising and conducting proof-producing experiments in the coming months to get what they crave. In the meantime, check out this great presentation created by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and XPLANE. You can read more about it here. Enjoy!