[JDDunn9]

While statistics are certainly abused an misunderstood, I don't think that small sample sizes are the worst problem. The media usually reports margins of error, and most people know small samples may not represent the population.

I think a much larger problem is in the underlying assumptions that are made. For instance, assuming that an experiment on animals can be applied to humans (sometimes it can, sometimes it can't). These can be more nuanced and much harder to detect than a simple math error.

Also, the importance of truly random sampling is not emphasized enough. Even medical researchers are guilty of using international cluster sampling to make generalizations about the population. Overlooking sources of bias like geography, culture, lifestyle differences, etc.

[kylemaxwell]

The media report margin of error but not confidence interval, which is highly important. If you have a 95% confidence that the poll has a 3% margin, that's a very different statement than 80% confidence.