How to Lie with Statistics Reissue Edition

by Darrell Huff (Author), Irving Geis (Illustrator)

477 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0393310726

ISBN-10: 0393310728

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Darrell Huff runs the gamut of every popularly used type of statistic, probes such things as the sample study, the tabulation method, the interview technique, or the way the results are derived from the figures, and points up the countless number of dodges which are used to full rather than to inform.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"There is terror in numbers," writes Darrell Huff in How to Lie with Statistics. And nowhere does this terror translate to blind acceptance of authority more than in the slippery world of averages, correlations, graphs, and trends. Huff sought to break through "the daze that follows the collision of statistics with the human mind" with this slim volume, first published in 1954. The book remains relevant as a wake-up call for people unaccustomed to examining the endless flow of numbers pouring from Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and everywhere else someone has an axe to grind, a point to prove, or a product to sell. "The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify," warns Huff.

Although many of the examples used in the book are charmingly dated, the cautions are timeless. Statistics are rife with opportunities for misuse, from "gee-whiz graphs" that add nonexistent drama to trends, to "results" detached from their method and meaning, to statistics' ultimate bugaboo--faulty cause-and-effect reasoning. Huff's tone is tolerant and amused, but no-nonsense. Like a lecturing father, he expects you to learn something useful from the book, and start applying it every day. Never be a sucker again, he cries!

Even if you can't find a source of demonstrable bias, allow yourself some degree of skepticism about the results as long as there is a possibility of bias somewhere. There always is.

Read How to Lie with Statistics. Whether you encounter statistics at work, at school, or in advertising, you'll remember its simple lessons. Don't be terrorized by numbers, Huff implores. "The fact is that, despite its mathematical base, statistics is as much an art as it is a science." --Therese Littleton

Review

“A hilarious exploration of mathematical mendacity…. Every time you pick it up, what happens? Bang goes another illusion!”
- The New York Times

“In one short take after another, Huff picks apart the ways in which marketers use statistics, charts, graphics and other ways of presenting numbers to baffle and trick the public. The chapter “How to Talk Back to a Statistic” is a brilliant step-by-step guide to figuring out how someone is trying to deceive you with data.”
- Wall Street Journal

“Illustrator and author pool their considerable talents to provide light lively reading and cartoon far which will entertain, really inform, and take the wind out of many an overblown statistical sail.”
- Library Journal

“A pleasantly subversive little book, guaranteed to undermine your faith in the almighty statistic.”
- Atlantic

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Product details

Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (October 17, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393310728
ISBN-13: 978-0393310726
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 477 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Books > Business & Money > Education & Reference > Statistics
- #11 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > Statistics
- #19 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Applied > Probability & Statistics

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Naomi

Influential book to me.

February 25, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I'm a college student who had to buy this book for a math class. We had a list of books to choose from and I chose this because it seemed to be one of those interesting debunking type writing pieces that give an alternate perspective on something so commonly followed.
With statistics, we see them everywhere and spewing from people's mouths constantly. But where do they come from and why are they unreliable and in what cases are they unreliable?
Darrell Huff kind of hits all aspects of statistics, and is sure that he hasn't crossed his own lines of creating bias; throughout the book he addresses each side the story. What sides am I referring to? The statistician's point of view, whoever's hands it was transferred to thereafter, the media that project this news to viewers, and the viewers point of view. He does this all with such a sense of reliability, because he never fails to leave out an aspect that would undermine his conclusions.
I found a lot of great information in this book, some that has reinforced my beliefs about statistics and others that have provided me with new views on information. With increasing amounts of information available, and that instant communication that allows us to share information faster, we need people to be reading more books like this so they avoid learning a bunch of value-less information from people who haven't "done their homework."
Sometimes statistical deceit is unintentional, while other times it's deliberate. Huff examines each cases, and attempts to provide understanding to all of his readers as to how we can avoid this and the 5 questions we can ask ourselves when we approach information.

If you've either:
- Wondered about news information and how it's history has influenced citizens (and how it really still applies)
- Needed refreshers on the importance of statistics as well as how to approach them
- Struggled with reading statistics or producing statistics
- Enjoyed being offered alternate perspectives on widely accepted practices like presenting information through statistics
- Curious about where people get their information, and why they're quick to spew statistics like it's true knowledge
THEN READ THIS BOOK! :)

19 people found this helpful20 people found this helpful

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Bonnie Press-Harrison

AFTER YOU READ "HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS" YOU'LL NEVER LOOK AT POLLS, SURVEYS & ADS IN THE SAME WAY!

December 29, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This author taught me something I should already know. I knew it happened but didn't realize how many areas of our lives are manipulated by numbers. Having a background in media, I learned how some statistics can be, shall I say, modified to make the point a Radio/TV Station wants to make. I'm a hard sell on stuff like this. However, Darrell Huff cleverly outs the "clever" statisticians who use everything from sample studies, interview techniques, tabulations & every method conceivable to have us believe what they want us to. "How to Lie With Statistics",is an informative wake up, an easy read, with illustrations by Irving Geis, that lend this rather serious subject some whimsy! Entertains, informs & kind of shakes your faith in the good old, "87% of people studied (some small print) prefer So & So's deep fried Raisins for improved memory function". After finishing Huff''s short, but sweet 144 page heads up on how numbers lie, you won't ever think the same when reading a statistic!

21 people found this helpful22 people found this helpful

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Statistics 101 - Math 101 - Citizenship 101

October 6, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This little book was first published in the Fifties and has remained in print even as the cover cost and the examples of merchandise in the book have been ungraded for inflation. Why? Because the principles it teaches are just as important now as then. See how government, big business, pressure groups and labor all manipulate us with number-mangling to indicate changes in prices or wages are better or worse than they really are, or how the government's policy is the right one even though it may be terrible (and on the other hand, how the opponent uses statistics to make things gloomier than reality). Written with a smile, easily understandable, yet with a fine sense of how statistics can be used against us even, allegedly, "for our own good." Every American should have a copy of HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS.

5 people found this helpful6 people found this helpful

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Maverick

EVERYONE should read this: Before you buy, before you vote, before you...

December 9, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book was required reading before my 8th grade algebra class in 1964. It should still be required reading today. I saved my hardbound copy, and had both of my children read it when they were in junior high school.

Before you watch any newscast, or listen to any advertisement, or let any salesman give you a nice sales pitch full of statistics, charts and graphs, you should read this little, fast read, entertaining book.

I bought this paperback to make sure I always have a copy, even when my 51 year old hardbound dies. I want my grandchildren to read it. It is so easy to convince the il-informed using statistics... it is so easy to lie. This book lets you see right through the lies that are presented to you every day in the news, in ads, by salesmen, and even by friends. Worth every penny.

5 people found this helpful6 people found this helpful

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Thought-provoking

July 26, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Originally purchased this about six years after it first came out, and used it in college to be more skeptical of graphs in publications. Just bought it again since my consulting involves use of statistics, and reference to its usefulness and potential problems with clients. A fast, thought-provoking read. Some of the negative reviews state it's dated, and the examples are. But that misses the point. The ways in which data is presented hasn't really changed much, and the issues / principles raised in this book are still very valid. There's a tendency to accept at face value graphs and other pictorial representations as fact based on the initial impression. This book reviews some common ways such data can (and is) be misrepresented, and encourages a healthy skepticism. When anyone can buy a statistics software program and plug in numbers based on spurious assumptions and print out a "scientific" appearing graph / pie chart, the basic points raised in this book are all the more important -- especially in this new age of "alt facts".

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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