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Darrell Huff

Irving Geis

How to Lie with Statistics Paperback – October 17, 1993

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

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Over Half a Million Copies Sold--an Honest-to-Goodness Bestseller

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.

Print length

144 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

October 17, 1993
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.5 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0393310728
ISBN-13

978-0393310726
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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!"
― New York Times

"A pleasantly subversive little book guaranteed to undermine your faith in the almighty statistic."
― Atlantic

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (October 17, 1993)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393310728
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393310726
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.84 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Business Statistics
- #1 in Statistics (Books)
- #7 in Probability & Statistics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3,053 ratings

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Darrell Huff
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Darrell Huff (July 15, 1913 – June 27, 2001) was an American writer, and is best known as the author of How to Lie with Statistics (1954), the best-selling statistics book of the second half of the twentieth century.
Huff was born in Gowrie, Iowa, and educated at the University of Iowa, (BA 1938, MA 1939). Before turning to full-time writing in 1946, Huff served as editor of Better Homes and Gardens and Liberty magazine. As a freelancer, Huff produced hundreds of "How to" feature articles and wrote at least sixteen books, most of which concerned household projects. One of his biggest projects was a prize-winning home in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where he lived until his death.
Stanford historian Robert N. Proctor wrote that Huff "was paid to testify before Congress in the 1950s and then again in the 1960s, with the assigned task of ridiculing any notion of a cigarette-disease link. On March 22, 1965, Huff testified at hearings on cigarette labeling and advertising, accusing the recent Surgeon General's report of myriad failures and 'fallacies'."
First and foremost, though, Huff is credited with introducing statistics to a generation of college and high-school students on a level that was meaningful, available, and practical, while still managing to teach complex mathematical concepts. His most famous text, How to Lie with Statistics, is still being translated into new languages. His books have been published in over 22 languages, and continue to be used in classrooms the world over.
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Irving Geis
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Irving Geis (October 18, 1908 – July 22, 1997) was an American artist who worked closely with biologists. Geis's hand-drawn work depicts many structures of biological macromolecules, such as DNA and proteins, including the first crystal structure of sperm whale myoglobin.
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Customer reviews

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Nair S.

One of the easiest and basic stats book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 20, 2023

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This book is great for everyone, it doesn't teach you statistics through numbers but just through a understanding of logical fallacies. Once you read this, you start questioning all the stats around you.

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Wes Moulder

Should be Required Reading!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 16, 2022

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Everyone should be required to read this book in high school or even middle school. There are quite a few points about how we talk about data and where things may be ambiguous to the reader. It's a very old book, but the lessons are still valid.

Helpful

Charming if a bit dated and oversimplified

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

In 2016, all the best money was on Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump in the U.S. Presidential election. Massive polls analyzed by highly-credentialed experts said so. The election went the other way. How could the analysts have gotten it so wrong? A potential answer is found in the pages of this short book written more than sixty years earlier by Darrell Huff and charmingly (if whimsically) illustrated by Irving Geis.

This book was recommended to me in passing by one of my professors when I was completing the capstone course for my BS in mathematics. Largely because of who suggested it, I expected a book about mathematical statistics. Instead, this is a book about understanding how statistical analysis can be abused (by journalists, politicians, advertisers, etc., etc.). It does not denigrate the practice of statistical analysis itself (though you will not learn even a single technique from statistical theory in its 144 pages), but rather serves as a lighthearted cautionary tale about how easy it is to become convinced that statistics carry all the weight of science even though statistical analysis is both science and art.

The reader already well-versed in statistics will not find any new information but will still be pleased by the book's artful presentation of known ideas. Readers who are not so well-versed in statistics should consider this book required reading because it succinctly explains how the information we all consume every day may have been manipulated--intentionally or otherwise--to give us false impressions.

In fact, I would argue the value of this book has only increased in the decades since its initial publication. While the reader picking up this book upon its publication in 1954 would surely encounter plenty of statistics and graphs throughout the week, our modern 24-hour news cycle and constant immersion in a multimedia world has magnified the opportunity for statistical deception. Of course, you'll find that the book's examples are outdated (references to an exorbitant $25,000 salary for Yale graduates might seem at first more quaint than informative). However, despite the dated examples, the statistical phenomena described are as relevant as ever. Indeed, an argument could be made that the examples from yesteryear might even aid the book's pedagogical value by avoiding the contemporary issues that might cause the reader to don partisan intellectual blinders.

If I were to criticize, I would say that the book fails as an introduction to statistical thinking. For example, it rightly cautions the reader to beware of the difference between median and mean when interpreting reported "averages," but fails to provide much insight regarding when each of these measures of central tendency might be superior to the other. As such, the reader looking for insight regarding the practice of statistics, even from a non-technical perspective, may be disappointed. However, the reader interested in the consumption of statistical information will find a wealth of information packed into a charming little book.

116 people found this helpful

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Perraith

Useful in today's climate

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 8, 2022

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It's a matter of perspective.

That's this book in a nutshell. The 'almighty' statistic is largely a matter of how you look at it. Presentation matters more than as raw data. This is a good book for those curious how you can lie with 'irrefutable' numbers. In the case of statistics, most lies are by omission.

If you ever wonder how propaganda works this is a good place to start. Also check out Milgram's experiment, read some of the commentary from Goering at the Nuremburg Trials. Try watching Kabuki theatre, anime without watching the screen (i.e. listen to the dialogue alone), Yongyea who's a voice actor and video game news junkie, John Stossel's election campaign trails interview... If you want to learn how literally millions across the globe can be duped those are all good sources to observe the process.

6 people found this helpful

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Kenneth s.

Eye opener!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

Very informative and revealing. Most people are so blinded by statistics, studies, etc. COVID proved how ignorant the majority of humans are. Big business, politicians, the government are all lying right to our faces and if they have a chart to go with the lie, we believe it. Great book!!

4 people found this helpful

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JC

Solid, timeless lessons -- highly recommend for EVERYONE

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 26, 2022

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This book was written before big data and the internet, but the lessons written in it are based on basic principles of statistics and are still relevant. Highly recommend, especially in this age of misinformation.

2 people found this helpful

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Jeremiah Ludwig

Excellent, but dated.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

This little book is a great piece to get one in the right mindset for consuming media, political propaganda, science, and more! While it is a lighthearted read, lacking in substantial statistical analysis, it does provide a basic breakdown of how statistics can be used to manipulate, fool, and lie (with oneself as a thinker, and with ones consumers). Even if a given thinker is not using any of the fallacies that this book discusses, it is worthwhile for a reader to maintain the spirit -the mindset- of this book, and always remain critical when reading data, science and statistics.

You will probably be best served in reading this book if you already know a little bit about statistics (ie: the difference between mean, median and mode, and when one might use them), but some complementary google searching while reading can fill in the blanks for those less statistically inclined.

Admittedly, it is a little bit dated, with most sources coming from a long time ago, and most references falling flat on their faces. This dated-ness doesn't take away from the content though, and should not dissuade you from getting a copy.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Michael A Baker

They're still lyong with statistics!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 24, 2021

Verified Purchase

I first read this book more than 60 years ago. It captures in an amusing way some of the techniques which were then, and still are today, used by advertisers governments and others to present data in a way which mis-leads those whom they are informing. Its main weakness is a tendency to be repetitive and confine itself to American information.
Stimulated by the ever-increasing use of statistics by politicians, commercial organisations , environmentalists and others, I am well on the way to completing a book on this subject myself. Still, we see such techniques as comparing two percentages (without any detail of the actual numbers involved - 80% of 20 is hardly to be compared with 60% of 20 000), references to the results of surveys -with no indication of how many people were surveyed, how the sample was selected, how the questions were asked and so on.

8 people found this helpful

Terry Freedman

Still useful after all these years

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

I first read this book at university, where I was studying statistics as part of my degree. However, it has been in the context of other subjects and, indeed, life in general that this book has proven most useful.

The odd-sounding title is easily explained by the author himself. He says he wrote the book much in the same spirit as a burglar might write an instruction manual on how to break into people’s houses — not so much to make it easier for burglars to do so, but so that home-owners can see where their vulnerabilities lie.

These days, the book seems to be even more relevant. Not only are research findings reported in the papers virtually every day, but in education in particular there are quite a few articles of faith that are based on shaky, and sometimes non-existent, foundations.

With chapters like “The well-chosen average”, “The little figures that are not there” and “The semi-attached figure”, the book makes you look at statistics in a different way.

For example, if you were to read a report that tells us that research has shown that 98% of students derive no benefit whatsoever from using technology, you may have a vague feeling of unease about such a finding. However, having read this book you should be able to re-read the report and spot where the statistical sleight of hand occurred (assuming it did occur, of course).

Then again, there are the endless announcements telling us that eating X wards off cancer, causes cancer, is dangerous for people over 40, is only dangerous if you eat more than one a day etc etc ad nauseous. Again, an insight into how some of the figures cited were derived would be immensely helpful in your decision-making.

Illustrated with cartoons by Mel Calman, this light-hearted and slim volume punches way above its weight. Although it was first published over 60 years ago, in 1954, it is still relevant. It should be on every teacher’s shelf and in every school library.

28 people found this helpful

asdr

Lie like a politician!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

Great book for how politicians mislead you with "statistics" covid *cough cough*

32 people found this helpful

old1

A paradigm shift for many bottom focused companies

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

Much of the content of this book is not revolutionary but evolutionary, especially if you are an accountancy firm. The major thrust of this book is about agreed accountability, including everyone from the receptionist to the owners and their customers. It covers detailed methods with examples for his own company. It is more evolutionary partly because the basic theory is not new but in the context of an accountancy firm probable revolutionary.

The basic concept is that everyone, including customers, are accountable for their actions and therefore their impact on the success of the company. It highlights an important and fundamental problem associated with bottom-line focussed companies not acknowledging or realizing that not only are customers important to their profit but so are the workforce.

Thiss book addresses this in a well-structured way and is transparent in describing the journey of his company to a point where the profit has increased and staff are engaged with the company as stack holders. An excellent read and well worth giving as a gift, as the methods can be applied to other situation like parenting, relationships to name two.

One person found this helpful

Salvatore McDonagh

Still as relevant as when it was first written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

You need to read this book, and so does everyone you agree with, and everyone you disagree with.

No math required - this was written for the layperson. It's a quick and easy read. It is like putting on a pair of glasses that allow you to suddenly see clearly what you had never realised was blurred.

This is really about how to spot deceptive statistics, whether they were intentionally crafted to manipulate you, or unintentionally created due to ignorance or bias.

If you pay attention you will find modern examples for every "outdated" example in this book.

Politicians and marketers still use these techniques to mislead, and statistically naive scientists fool themselves (and unfortunately others) by making these mistakes.

Stop being misled. Read this book as soon as you can get your hands on a copy.

2 people found this helpful

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How to Lie with Statistics Paperback – October 17, 1993

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