Fear of the unknown: Relationship between statistics anxiety and attitudes toward statistics of university students in three countries Korolkiewicz, Malgorzata Fewster-Young, Nick Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando Gabriel, Florence Kariuki, Pamela López Puga, Jorge Marrone, Rebecca Miles, Andrew Ruiz Ruano García, Ana María attitudes toward statistics statistics anxiety statistics instruction In an increasingly data-driven world, statistical literacy is a necessity yet statistical learning is often inhibited by statistics anxiety. Using the Auzmendi Scale to Measure Attitude toward Statistics (ASMAS), this study examines how statistics anxiety in university students is related to other dimensions of their attitudes toward statistics and how statistics anxiety and other dimensions change following introductory statistics instruction. Based on data collected from Spain, Canada, and Australia, this study finds that anxiety is negatively related to security–confidence, pleasantness, and motivation. The structure of these relationships is consistent across countries and disciplines and remains in place after statistics instruction. Further, by the end of an introductory statistics course, students report higher security–confidence and pleasantness but lower anxiety. Results thus suggest where efforts to improve students' experience with statistics might need to be directed, and the paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for statistics instruction. 2024-09-05T11:38:39Z 2024-09-05T11:38:39Z 2024-08-05 journal article Korolkiewicz, M. et. al. Teaching Statistics. 2024;1–22. [https://doi.org/10.1111/test.12381] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/94025 10.1111/test.12381 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional Wiley Online Library