From the perspective of a person in the street, statisticians do not always get it right. Sometimes it seems that they get it spectacularly wrong. Modern society applies statistics to phenomena as diverse as disease prediction and politics, from actuarial tables in insurance to weather forecasting; we have integrated "big data" and "number-crunching" into many critical functions of our culture and society.

Do you think the use of statistics is more of a positive or negative influence on society as a whole? Why do you take this position?