In a perfect example of how numbers and surveys can be manipulated to be anything the author wants them to be, a survey was posted recently by MyType that labeled iPad owners as a less than favorable group of people. MyType, who conducted its survey on Facebook, said iPad owners were “wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement much more than others. They’re also selfish, scoring low on measures of kindness and altruism.”

So, using that logic, why didn’t they report that non-iPad owners are poor, not educated, meek, underachieving, crude, kind and altruistic?

Mainly, I think, because it’s not true. But, their portrayal of iPad owners isn’t true either.

This type of portrayal isn’t new to Apple or its users. Surveys for years have labeled Mac users, and then iPod and iPhone users in much the same light. Those surveys weren’t right either.

John Grohol, founder of the Psych Central psychology website, said MyType didn’t “know the first thing about reporting statistics, or basic methodology in its own research. They tried to summarize a bunch of disparate traits into catchy marketing phrases to make news headlines – phrases that were neither particularly accurate nor particularly scientifically valid.”

That seems to sum it up.