How to Lie With Statistics

Rating:
Summary: A primer on healthy caution
Review: Since our schools regularly let us through without a single course in statistics, this book is for the general reader who is in peril of learning facts that aren't facts. It won't teach you statistics, but it will teach you what to look out for when you read the paper and see numbers and graphs. Since most institutions who report these data care little whether they are accurate or significant, you must rely on yourself to determine whether they are good numbers.

The problems with statistical data are still relevant today, and it is shocking to realize how contemporary many of his examples seem. The problems of bias, averaging, and confusing correlation with causation all dupe even the most well-educated people, and the advantage lies with the person who can spot fallacies and not be fooled. While learning statistics would be ideal, this book shows the first step towards understanding and critiquing statistical data. It is not longer or more complicated than it should be, and is simple to understand. Still, if you don't know how to evaluate some of the simple data that you come by every day in the news, this book will provide you with infinite wisdom.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent common sense guide to how Statisitics are abused
Review: This book is an excellent guide to how statistics are manipulated and misused. Speaking as a professional statistician I recommend it highly. Very readable and entertaining, the book goes through the basic ways in which statistics are misrepresented, and how a little common sense can (very often) reveal when extravagant claims are being made. This books is a little dated now (it was written in 1954) but very much worth reading - the ways statistics are manipulated haven't changed much. This book is not a textbook of statistics and is not aimed at college students. Rather, it is aimed at high school students and members of the general public who want to be on their guard against being manipulated by advertising and "studies". The last chapter ("How to talk back to a Statistic") should be required reading for anyone who reads a newspaper or an advertisement. More than anything else, this book teaches how to apply a little common sense to test wild statistical claims.

Rating:
Summary: An Entertaining Primer on the Validity of Statistics
Review: Although "How to Lie with Statistics" is a bit dated (having been written in the 1950's), the principles it puts forth are still valid today--if not moreso than ever--and the material is delivered in clear, concise, and even entertaining anecdotes and illustrations.

How often do you hear statistics bandied about in the media or used to try to prove some special-interest point? "Of course" the people quoting the figures must be right with numbers on their sides... until you look at just how those numbers were arrived at.

This book isn't truly a guide on how to lie with statistics, but it is an excellent text that informs the reader both how others will lie to them using statistics and on how to interpret the validity of purported statistical data.

Rating:
Summary: Some things never change
Review: How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff gives an explanation of common statistical errors. The book is clearly written and is understandable to a reader without a mathematics or statistics background. At only one hundred and forty two pages the book is a quick and easy read.

The book was originally published in 1954. The many copious examples were current at the time of writing, but are extremely dated now. Depending on the readers attitude this may be distracting, or faintly amusing. The advanced age of the examples does not make the text any harder to understand.

While the examples are dated, the concepts appear to be timeless. The same statistical manipulations still seem to be going on nearly fifty years later. The Author covers a wide range of statistical errors, or abuse. All of the types of errors will be familiar to anyone who pays attention to the news, or has seen an advertisement that uses numbers.

How to Lie with Statistics gives the reader the knowledge to detect common statistical skulduggery. If this knowledge were more widely spread, perhaps advertisers, political spinmiesters and sloppy journalists would not be able to get away with that sort of abuse.

Rating:
Summary: This book is a "must read".
Review:

For an excellent short introduction to the problems of polling, as well as other statistical nightmares, check out "How to Lie With Statistics" by Darrell Huff. This little book, which you can read in an afternoon, was written in the 50's and is *still* the definitive bible on how statistics can be misused.

It's fun to read, too, and I laughed out loud a number of times while reading it. A more accurate (but less catchy) title for the book would be "how other people lie with statistics, and how you can recognize it when they try to snow you." Each section describes a way that statistics or graphs are misused, and then gives real-life examples from advertisements or newspaper articles or political speeches of the author's day which illustrate the misuse in action. Sad to say, Huff's examples from the 50's look just like the crap we get shoved at us today. Some things never change.

The book only costs about $5, and from it you'll learn as much as an entire college course. Get a copy, read it, and lend it to friends. If I had to throw away all my books and could only keep a dozen, this would be one of the keepers.

Rating:
Summary: Tools of Lying Liars and those who believe
Review: (...)

One particular "statistic" tells it all. "A study showed that 98% of all heroin addicts started out by drinking milk. Therefore the conclusion is that milk consumption leads to heroin addiction and to protect society we should ban the sale of milk."

It seems pretty farfetched, but the (il)logic applied above is still used today to sell products, ideas and even legislation that controls our lives.

My advice, Read This Book and learn to see beyond the faulty studies and conclusions still used to manipulate us for other's gain!

Rating:
Summary: An Entertaining Primer on the Validity of Statistics
Review: Although "How to Lie with Statistics" is a bit dated (having been written in the 1950's), the principles it puts forth are still valid today--if not moreso than ever--and the material is delivered in clear, concise, and even entertaining anecdotes and illustrations.

How often do you hear statistics bandied about in the media or used to try to prove some special-interest point? "Of course" the people quoting the figures must be right with numbers on their sides... until you look at just how those numbers were arrived at.

This book isn't truly a guide on how to lie with statistics, but it is an excellent text that informs the reader both how others will lie to them using statistics and on how to interpret the validity of purported statistical data.

Rating:
Summary: Clear, Concise, and Fun
Review: How to Lie with Statistics is a fun and informative look at the was in which statisticians try to decieve the public with misleading statistics. Every chapter contains plenty of real-world examles that provide excellent insight into the concepts. The book is a quick read (only 142 pages) and it holds the reader's attention; both are necessities for an educational work. How to Lie with Statistics is perfect for the beginning statistics student or anyone who wants to learn how they can be decieved through the manipulation of numbers. The reading level and math make this more appropriate for high school or college students than for younger students. Using three randomly selected paragraphs, the mean Flesch-Kincaid grade level was 10.4; thus this book is excellent for sophomores or advanced freshman. Although the writing is a little dated (1954), it is still clear and highly relevant. Overall, this is a highly recommended and worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: Fun to read, a lot to learn for many
Review: If you are a visual person -who prefers graphics and charts to text- and have taken no statistics course in your entire life, this book is a perfect fit for you. If you are a well-educated statistician, but do not know how to apply your tricks in advertisement or publishing industry, the book will work for you, too. Finally, if you are graphic designer working for one of the magazines or creating charts for corporate reports, you can also have a lot of fun by just realizing that now a lot of people know about your tricks. Although the book is written more than 50 years ago, it is still very up-to-date, due to the concept it is targeting: people are still trying to make you believe in things that do not exist by using fancy charts and unrealistically accurate numbers.

Rating:
Summary: A world of liars
Review: I had to read this book for my high school AP statistics class. I truly enjoyed reading this book. My dad had to read the same while he was in college 30 years ago. We were able to discuss the book. Huff was very insightful but humorous at the same time. This book helped me to learn how much goes into statistics and the way that they use their data however they want to. It was a fun way to learn not only about math but about the way that people use that math. It was interesting that even though the book was written over 50 years ago that his examples still worked and I could relate to things he said. I would recommend it to anyone high school level or above especially if you plan on taking or using statistics in your life.