ruhwa.blogg.se - How to lie using statistics

The fact is that, despite its mathematical base, statistics is as much an art as it is a science.It may seem altogether too much like a manual for swindlers. This book is a sort of primer in ways to use statistics to deceive.But without writers who use the words with honesty and understanding and readers who know what they mean, the result can only be semantic nonsense.

Statistical methods and statistical terms are necessary in reporting the mass data of social and economic trends, business conditions, “opinion” polls, the census. The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify. There may be more in them than meets the eye, and there may be a good deal less. Averages and relationships and trends and graphs are not always what they seem.

So it is with much that you read and hear.

'A hilarious exploration of mathematical mendacity. And in the modern world of big data and misinformation, Huff remains the perfect guide through the maze of facts and figures that are designed to make us believe anything. With over one and half million copies sold around the world, it has delighted generations of readers with its cheeky takes on the ins and outs of samples, averages, errors, graphs and indexes. How to Lie with Statistics is the result - the definitive and hilarious primer in the ways statistics are used to deceive. Fed up with politicians, advertisers and journalists using statistics to sensationalise, inflate, confuse, oversimplify and - on occasion - downright lie, he decided to shed light on their ill-informed and sneaky ways.

In 1954, Darrell Huff decided enough was enough. gave me a peek behind the curtain of statistical manipulation, showing me how the swindling was done so that I would not be fooled again' Tim Harford 'Perhaps the most popular book on statistics ever published. 'A great introduction to a crucial topic' Bill Gates