How to Lie With Statistics

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Summary: OUTSTANDING book
Review: If I could, I would give one copy of this book, which is targeted at ordinary people, to every man, woman, and child on Earth. Why? It is simply the best book on how we are fooled and manipulated with pie charts, statistics, and graphs by advertisers, politicians, and by anyone else with something to prove. Absolutely invaluable. It's easy to read, and in an amusing format: the author treats the reader as if s/he were a student at swindling school, learning the techniques to use on the job. This book may have been written in the 40s but it is still just as revelant today as it was then. BUY THIS BOOK!

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Summary: David_Gonzalez
Review: Who would have told that and old book like this would still be that interesting? Actually.. that's what surprised me the most.. how simple and valid are the ideas expressed on this small book. Highly recommended.

If it only were written in the Excel and Powerpoint times.... that would make it a fantastic book!

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Summary: The Elements of Statistical Sense
Review: This book is a classic. Concise and easy to read, filled with gems of common sense, How to Lie With Statistics does for the credulous (including too-credulous skeptics) what The Elements of Style does for writers: delivers a huge wallop from a tiny package.

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Summary: If you as much as read the daily newspapers, a must !
Review: A Great read !
Short and to the point, fun to read.
Although some of the numbers are out of date, the ideas behind 1954 book a still as relevent as they were in the 50's. probably even more.
"How to lie with statistics" will give you better understanding of the "truth" behind the so called "scientific studies" in advertising and in the newspaper.
It's almost as good in tips on how to lie to people who haven't read the book... for you advertising guys...
Since we are all exposed to statistics, and since we all have to "market" ourselves (our products, our ideas...), i'd say it's a must for everyone.

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Summary: Easy Read
Review: I found this book easy to read and very informative about the pitfalls and traps in the presentation of statistics.

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Summary: Statistical Perspicacity
Review: I recently reread this book and am still enthralled. Huff wishes to arm the reader with enough knowledge to spot inappropriate statistics. Even though this book is almost half a decade old, it is as timely today as ever. And it is amusing to see references to costs from the middle of the last century. Anyone who wishes to understand the world around them, and I hope that's all of us, should read this book. It is a classic.

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Summary: Best intro to statistics -- ever!
Review: Huff has found a catchy title to lure readers into the dry-sounding but utterly fascinating world of statistics.

Packed with examples from the 1950s which seem as fresh as yesterday, this book shows how advertisers and others try to trick us by misusing statistics. "Figures don't lie, but liars figure." could be the unwritten motto of this book. Almost every day I see a Gee Whiz graph which makes something look like it's skyrocketing out of control before I check the scale. Then it turns out that a 5% or 10% bump looks like 600% to 1,000%. The trick is to abuse the visual impact of the graph.

A company might cut wages 30%, then later increase them 30% and claim that they have restored the cut. Huff explains why this is actually a 9% pay cut! This is one of many weapons in the statisticulator's arsenal.

Huff, aided by Geis's amusing and revealing illustrations, teaches us how to defend ourselves from statistical abuse, by showing us how the tricks are done.

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Summary: Interesting
Review: This short essay is really interesting, even if it relies much more above use that humans make of statistics than above statistics itself. You can deceive people by presenting statistical data by mainly two methods: not representative samples and inaccurate calculations, and both are fairly, but not deeply, examined within the text. You can easily realize that the book was written in 1954 (half a century ago!), but it is still a suitable to almost absolute beginners in statistics.

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Summary: Statistics don't lie; people do.
Review: This book, written in 1954, is just as pertinent today (perhaps even more so, as it's so easy to acquire statistics due to our current technology) -- Darrell Huff gives people the tools to talk back to statistics. Though there is a little bit about deliberate deception, in such things as "The Gee-Whiz Graph" (about how the graphical display of statistics can be twisted so that one can get any desired result, though the stats aren't changed), the meat of the book is regarding sound statistical reasoning, something that people today really need to consider.

For example, every person who listens to the latest survey showing a correlation between certain food and certain health problems or benefits should read "Post Hoc Rides Again", in which people erroneously leap from statistical correlation to a cause-and-effect relationship. An example given in the book is a report in which it was found that smokers had lower grades in college; ergo, said the researcher, smokers wishing to improve their grades should quit smoking! Of course, a statistical study showing that there's a "significant" relation between smoking and low grades doesn't show which causes the other -- perhaps educational failure draws people to smoke! My own theory would be that the =type= of person who is given to smoking is also given to not doing well in school; instead of cause and effect, one has a correlation from a shared, third (and unnamed) cause. One comes across these fallacies in the news =every=day=; I've been reading my online news, and in the science section I've already found two suspicious cause-and-effect reports. As Huff notes, it's not the statistics which are in question -- it's how they're used.

Some of the figures and examples used are funny due to their datedness (I love the picture of the surveyor asking a doctor what brand of cigarette he smokes, and the cigar-smoking baby just makes me smirk). It seems to me if you multiply every monetary amount by 10, you might get a better idea as to what it's worth (I don't know what it is actually worth, as I don't know what the inflation from 1954 is (another suspicious statistic)).

More to the point, with the help of this book, you need not have blind faith in the numbers or disgustedly throw all stats away. The mathematics of statistics guarantees them to have great power, as long as you know how to interpret them correctly. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that more common sense than math is involved in this book, but the truth is most modern abuse of numbers happens well after the numbers have been calculated. Of course, once you talk back to statistics people may think you're crazy; at least you won't be fleeced by false reasoning.

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Summary: Statistics Prove It's So- Or Do They?
Review: I first became acquainted with this book when I worked for the US Government. They were going 'hot and heavy', trying to introduce statistics to 'built the quality into our products' instead of 'trying to inspect quality into the products'. The problem?- none of the supervisors or management really knew anything about statistics, either. After I quoted this book a couple of times it seemed to 'disappear' from our Technical Library. I didn't see it again for nearly twenty years and then another ten years passed before I saw it advertised on Amazon.com . Graphs, especially those truncated and showing only the top part of what is being charted- such as a change from 95% to 98% can appear as almost a doubling at first glance. A saying we had was- "Figgers don't lie- but liars can figger!" You too can learn about statistics and phony charts, or maybe really learn how to interpret the data presented. The numbers still work but the book doesn't appear to have been updated over the years; the annual income examples, etc. especially seem wildly low and unless you can relate to them take away some of the relevance to todays economy. Realize this is a bit of a classic, though, and you can have some fun with it!