Attitudes toward statistics among business students: Do majors, mathematical background, sex, and field of secondary education matter?

Abstract Statistics knowledge, literacy, and skills are vital to undergraduates' academic and professional careers. Students' attitudes toward statistics play a vital role in their understanding of the importance of statistics. Therefore, it is important to examine their attitude toward statistics. This study investigated the attitude of 153 business students toward statistics and the factors that affect this attitude using the Survey Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS‐36) scale. It also investigated the relationship between attitudinal components and students' demographic and academic characteristics. Five components underlying students' attitudes toward statistics were identified using exploratory factor analysis. Further, a background in quantitative subjects and demographic characteristics was found to affect students' attitudes toward statistics. The results suggested that statistics should be taught in a more practical way to relate it to students' lives, and teachers must adopt active learning methods in which students work with data and real‐life examples.