How to Lie with Statistics Reissue Edition

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

439 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0393310726

ISBN-10: 0393310728

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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.

How to Lie with Statistics

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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: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 439 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7 in Books > Business & Money > Education & Reference > Statistics
- #18 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Applied > Statistics
- #21 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > Statistics

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