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Summary: Be skeptical!
Review: How To Lie With Statistics is a simple explaination of the ways numbers can fool you. Darrell Huff's humor makes the topic of statistics more interesting and personal than you would think. Each chapter talks about a different method of misrepresentation, like mixed-up averages, misleading graphs, and faulty experiments. Although they're outdated, the examples from daily life make all the ideas easy to understand. I definitely reccomend this book not because you need to know each specific way numbers can be twisted, but more because Huff instills a general skepticism in the reader. Politicians make arguments and advertisers make claims, but now I know to challenge the numbers that I hear before falling for their "facts".
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Summary: A great read and educational too!
Review: I currently teach statistics in Cincinnati, Ohio. The book How to lie with statistics held my attention from beginning to end. It not only informs the reader of common pitfalls in statistical studies, but it does so in a highly entertaining fashion. I believe that my students will enjoy the book, and I hope that they will start to enjoy statistics as well. The book was written some time ago and the figures are very outdated. I believe my students will find that amusing and will be even more interested in the reading.
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Summary: Reminds us all to ask, what are we not being told?
Review: Despite the fact that this book is well over 30 years old, it is still right on target. The examples given are a bit dated, but still do a good job in illustrating the principle.You do not need a background in any kind of statistics to understand and appreciate the lessons in this book.
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Summary: Fun
Review: It's nice to read a book like this. There is a very light tone through the book. And it's a short book, incidentally. You will finish it in about 2 sessions.
I was happy to see that I'm not the only person annoyed at the way graphs are shown, with the bottom cut off to dramatize changes. This is only one example out of several. You woul be able to figure out some of these yourself, but not all of them. One was a bit deep and I had to read it a second time to understand what the falsity was. I recommend this book because it imparts valuable information in a readable fashion. Statistics are everywhere, and you absolutely must know how to separate the chaff.
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Summary: Must Read for Everyone
Review: There are 2 reasons why this is one of the best books to date: 1. It's an easy read: Minimal pages flowed with common sense examples provide the reader with information immediately. This helps the reader to examine any statistic or chart, regardless the source, and determine if it's accurate. 2. Teaches you to "See Through the Fluff"!: The book argues published stats/charts by asking relevant and, again, common sense questions, which are not considered. After reading this book, I never looked at a statistic or chart the same way again.
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Summary: Hemingway who? *This* is a classic !
Review: This book is one of those little volumes that everyone should read at least once. I go through the darned thing every once in a while, sometimes on rainy afternoons when I have nothing else to do. I always feel just a little bit smarter for the effort. The author champions a critical point-of-view that I've used to great advantage in countless meetings, arguments, and discussions. It reads sort of like an ancient "New Yorker" magazine; familiar, breezy, a little subversive. The dated examples always make me smile, like I'm reading a book I swiped from my graduate advisor 30 years ago. You won't be disappointed. Honest. It's a short read, but I wish all my time was as well spent!
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Summary: An old-fashined and sensible book
Review: Although a books about how to spot phony survey results, this book is like a light refresher course on logical fallacies. The author is rock solid and refreshingly sensible. Good stuff with good examples.
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Summary: Couldn't teach without it
Review: I teach Statistics and require all my students to read this book. At the end of each course, it becomes a highlight in the course evaluations - noted more times than not as one of the best parts of the class. Business professionals and students alike have much to gain from this very simple and entertaining reading.
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Summary: Almost Honest
Review: Darrell Huff has written a excellent resource for those who are struggling with a stastics course. While much of the research is dated, the facts are as true today as they were then. Statistics do not lie, people lie. Example after example, Huff shows the value of reading any study with skepticism. We laugh at the thought of believing everything we see on tv, but surely all studies are honest, right? Huff shows even the most credible of sources can be irresponsible and dishonest in what they tell their readers. This book was very helpful to me in my research and I would suggest it to those researching the flaws of statistics.
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Summary: More Important Than Fifty Years Ago
Review: In today's high tech world where everything is explained with "Corel Presents" or "Power Point" graphic presentations, this text has become much more important than ever before. How often have you went into a presentation, saw the colourful graphics and accepted the information being portrayed to you as realistic? You might have had suspicions about several things but did not have enough back bone to speak up or contest those figures because you simply did not know what questions to ask. This book guides one through the maze of statistics, their misuse through wrong calculations and unconcious optial illusions of graphs to influence our perception of the way we view a situation. When management, a salesperson or a politician starts talking about averages on a graph; Ask them which average are they actually talking about. Are they talking about the average mean, average mode or average median? I actually started inquiring with authors of previous presentations that I have received in the past. Some of the experts presenting these facts and figures did not know the calaculations used to atttain their results because they had acquired them from 3rd or 4th sources. It shows how many clueless presentors we have in this world. Sampeling is another one of those statistics some of us forget to ask about. When we see figures indicating 30 percent "YES" verses 70 percent "NO" from any given survey. Seventy percent of how many people said "NO"? Did they ask 100, 200, 600 or 1,000 people? Did they interview men, women, children, dogs or snails? Were the questions biased toward one group or the other? All of these questions are very important and the majority of the people fail to ask these questions when being presented with statisics. Some of the language is old and outdated but it is exactly this which makes it a charm to read. Excellent, Excellent.....
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