Chapter 1. Introducing IBM SPSS Statistics

A statistic is a number. A raw statistic is a measurement of some sort. It is fundamentally a count of something — occurrences, speed, amount, or whatever. IBM SPSS Statistics is a piece of software that takes in raw data and combines them into new statistics that can be used as predictors.

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." That statement is often attributed to Mark Twain, but that's not quite right. Mark Twain did say it, but he attributed it to someone else. He indirectly attributed it to Disraeli, but his attribution was vague, and the original statement, if it exists, can't be located. Speaking statistically, the odds are we'll never know who said it first.