Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists, (Paperback)

from themulhern

This is a book about the social context surrounding the creation and dissemination of social statistics. It is in no way a book about the mathematical discipline of statistics, which is generally applied in textbooks to widgets, not people. Interestingly, the word statistics is derived from the w...

from stevebishop

Statistics are constructed not discovered. It is people that create statistics, consequently statistics are coloured by the worldview of the constructor. There is no such thing as a neutral statistic. This book provides ample evidence that statistics are the products of social activity. Joel Best...

from slothman

This is a good companion to the classic How to Lie with Statistics, delving into statistical methodologies and how numbers can be distorted, conflated, cherrypicked, confused, and put through "number laundering" by innumerates. Best does a good job of looking over real-world issues and provides c...

from rivkat

Short and not very deep book about when to be skeptical of statistics. I think the message could have been given even more briefly: often, statistics are unreliable because of problems of data collection and definition of terms, whether in surveys or in other ways. Because of innumeracy and natur...