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    How To Lie With Statistics
    How To Lie With Statistics
    How To Lie With Statistics
    Audiobook3 hours

    How To Lie With Statistics

    Written by Darrell Huff

    Narrated by Bryan DePuy

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Now available in audio for the first time! Darrell Huff's celebrated classic "How to Lie With Statistics" is a straight-forward and engaging guide to understanding the manipulation and misrepresentation of information that could be lurking behind every graph, chart, and infographic. Originally published in 1954, it remains as relevant and necessary as ever in our digital world where information is king—and as easy to distort and manipulate as it is to access.

    A pre-cursor to modern popular science books like Steven D. Levitt's "Freakonomics" and Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers", 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. Critically acclaimed by media outlets like The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and recommended by Bill Gates as a perfect beach read, "How to Lie With Statistics" stands as the go-to book for understanding the use of statistics by teachers and leaders everywhere.



    "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



    "A great introduction to the use of statistics, and a great refresher for anyone who's already well versed in it." — Bill Gates



    "Mr. Huff's lively, human-interest treatment of the dry-as-bones subject of statistics is a timely tonic…This book needed to be written, and makes its points in an entertaining, highly readable manner."— Management Review



    "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
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNovel Audio
    Release dateFeb 10, 2016
    ISBN9781518912795
    How To Lie With Statistics

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    Reviews for How To Lie With Statistics

    4/5

    527 ratings29 reviews

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    • 4/5
      What catches you first is its title. What keeps you in it are the examples, humor, and illustrations. Yes, it is somewhat dated, but certainly not outdated and is still relevant -- possibly more than ever with the lifetimes-worth of content on the web. Reading this book will help you sniff out the bad stuff so you can focus on the information that counts.The main theme is fairly simple: don't take a number at face value -- there's chicanery afoot. Yes, people want to win arguments and make gains. It turns out numbers help with this. Even if there isn't an element of chicanery (the word's used a lot in the book), clumsiness or carelessness can still lead to false conclusions, and each chapter describes a mischievous tactic for twisting a number to come to those conclusions.There aren't too many pages and the lessons are invaluable. Take a few hours to read this and keep the lessons in your frontal lobe when you meet numbers supporting conclusions.
    • 5/5
      Great read on what could have been a dry topic. Huff had a great sense of humor. "How To Lie With Statistics" should be required reading in every school. A+
    • 4/5
      Could have given more examples, also needs an update to current prices but a good read/listen to heighten critical thinking awareness.
    • 5/5
      Great book, especially in the times of this covid hoax and Bill Gates' Statistical terrorism and Globalist communist agenda
    • 4/5
      This is a short little book written in the 1950s about how statistics are often manipulated, either the numbers themselves or in the presentation. Most of the examples are from advertising, news, or political groups, and although the examples are dated, the methods of trickery haven't changed. The core message of the book is to pay attention to statistics and be skeptical, but the author also explains in more detail why and how certain kinds of statistics are easily manipulated. For anyone who has taken a class in statistics or has much math background, the mathematical explanations will not be new, but it's still a good reminder to pay attention and not to accept statistics uncritically in situtations where the presenter has a reason to manipulate them.
    • 4/5
      This was entertaining, and I think it could serve as a good introductory text to thinking skeptically about information presented as fact (information literacy skills ahoy!). If you're already familiar with the main deceptive practices for information reporting, you're not going to learn anything new and different.

      However, it was informative by implicitly revealing some of the concerns of yesteryear. You know, irrelevant things like electoral college votes, toothpaste promises, the assessment of education, and so. :)
    • 5/5
      Sixty years after its first edition, this book is still true to its purpose: how to catch a lot of tricks, half-truths and purposeful omissions in everyday statistics.Written for the layman and useful for the specialist, knowledge of these "tips" is more useful than ever in our information overloaded society. Do yourself a favor and get a copy.
    • 5/5
      Very good read. Should be required before anyone is allowed to read or write the "News". Next question is will they use it to write better or lie better?
    • 4/5
      Short and interesting primer on how to understand the weaknesses behind statistics. We are thrown statistics in one shape or another all the time but what do they actually mean? What is the average? And which "average"? This book shows how statistics can be manipulated and teaches you to be skeptical. You learn how to question the conclusions, the graphs, and the data. Concise, practical, and entertaining read. Though the book was published a while ago, the lessons are still relevant today. Would recommend for those who want to be appreciate the subtleties of statistics or be more aware of how numbers can be used to deceive.
    • 5/5
      Classic of its kind that hasn't aged a bit since it came out many years ago. A very practical guide to how statistics can be misused, either intentionally or not. A must-read for anyone exposed to statistics on a regular basis -- which means anyone that reads a newspaper or magazine, or watches television!
    • 5/5
      Absolutely necessary classic for anyone who values logic and commonsense.
    • 2/5
      I picked up this book because a statistics professor I loved read about it. I found my statistics professor explained the ideas better than the book. I also found the book VERY dated. I was expecting an amazing book, and was disappointed.
    • 4/5
      This is a classic but still an interesting read. It discloses many fallacies that people might come up with. The fallacy of correlation vs causation is illustrated with good examples. The book's small size does pack a good amount of information for the average stat reader.
    • 4/5
      Somewhat outdated, somewhat still relevant. Scientific statistics became more reliable, usually providing margin of error and similar parameters. In terms of advertisement/media not much has changed. It was amusing to read about some artifacts from 60 years ago.
    • 4/5
      Now I know, and so should you, but you probably won't read the book, so I've done it for you.
    • 3/5
      A good cursory introduction to how easy it is to send wrong messages through statistics. A bit unnerving how a lot of this is still applicable. Don't expect to learn Inception-level skills.
    • 4/5
      This book explains how numbers and statistics can be manipulated to reflect data results in one's favor. The writing is easy to understand and the author uses relevant examples. However, since this book was originally written in 50s, the examples are a little out dated. Nevertheless, a teacher could find comparative examples using recent situations and events. This would be a great book to use when talking to students about the importance of displaying their data accurately. It could also be used in a history class when talking about politics and election polls.
    • 5/5
      For a book to remain in print for fifty years it must be good. This one was originally published in 1954 and, as far as I can tell, has been in print ever since. A book less than 150 pages long, generously seeded with amusing cartoons is not what you would expect to find on a graduate school reading list but that is exactly where I learned about this one. Darrell Huff and illustrator Irving Geis produced a little marvel with their book “How to Lie with Statistics”. As Huff points out early in the book a cat-burglar who writes a how-to memoir in prison does not do it for other cat-buglers. They already know how to burgle. The intended audience is people who do not want to be burgled, or, in the case of this book, lied to. Huff is careful to spread the blame for lying statistics widely, overeager researchers, poor information gathering by statisticians, advertising people willing to apply lipstick of any color to their pig, journalists looking for a marketable story. The fact that most of these lies are “true” is not ignored. For me the most memorable story he uses to make this clear is the restauranteur who explains his rabbit-burger is 50% rabbit, he mixes it in a 1 to 1 ratio with horse-meat. One rabbit to one horse. After nine chapters of explaining how easy it is for statistics, charts, graphs, and percentages to lie the last chapter makes a serious attempt to explaining how we can avoid being lied to by asking a few simple questions like, who says so, how does he know, what’s missing, and does it make sense. As Huff points out it is important to be able to detect these lies, not just because of misleading advertisements but because we have elections every few years. As an amateur historian who is just a few years younger than this book I have to admit I enjoyed the window into the past that the many cartoons offered. Yes, we really dressed and smoked like that. The books age was a little disconcerting when Huff dissected an article about the income of the “average” Yale graduate. Going to Yale hardly seemed worth the $25,000 income it offered until I ran it through an inflation calculator, then it made sense. This book is one of the most informative and fun books I have read in a long, long time. It was informative not because I know nothing about statistics, I do, it was informative because nether of the classes I have taken on statistics covered how easy it is to miss-use or misunderstand exactly what it is the numbers say. If you do not like being lied to, consider reading this book.
    • 4/5
      How to lie with statistics has become a classic since its publication almost sixty years ago. In an easy to read style, author Darrell Huff explains basic statistics and how results can be skewed by using different statistical techniques and graphs. He tells the reader how to get the best advantages while, at the same time, he warns the consumer what may be happening and why things look so “bad” or “good.”The chapter on averages was exceptionally clear with the explanations of mean, median and mode. I now know what stasticulating means and how to do it or recognize it. In fact, I will not look at statistics in any newspaper or journal article again without questioning the methods and results.My copy is the original edition with cartoon drawings by Irving Geis. The examples are from the fifties and seem terribly outdated. However, the important information is not outdated and is still relevant. If you need to understand how statistics work and how they can be manipulated for any purpose, this book is just right.
    • 5/5
      Don't believe anything!This fast little read does an amazing job uncovering the methods of presenting misleading statistics. This book was first published in 1954, but it reads as fresh as ever. People with axes to grind have been employing the same subversive tactics since statistics have been popularized. Furthermore, this book is often funny, hilarious even, particularly with the illustrations. The "claim to fame" statistic on the cover is an almost certainly deliberate illustration of ironic contempt for misleading statistics. After all, just because "Twighlight" was a bigger seller than "Anna Karenina" doesn't make it better.
    • 4/5
      A reissue of the 1954 classic, the author details many of the mistakes, either deliberate or accidental, that people make when deploying statistics in support of their pet cause. A handy corrective to the current culture of statistical malapropism, and a valuable tool to arm yourself against the barrage of bogus statistics and misinterpreted data that assail us every day.
    • 5/5
      Great little book, and entertaining too, statistically improbable anyone could make statistics amusing.
    • 4/5
      This book illustrates common ways to distort statistics. The most valuable part of this book is the last chapter, in which the author arms the reader with a series of questions to help him think critically in the face of authoritative-sounding numbers. This book is funny, educational, and should be required reading for every critical thinker.
    • 5/5
      Easily the most entertaining introduction to statistics and critical thinking I've come across. (What's my experience rate, you ask? You must have read the book!)While many examples are dated, they remain relevant and the lessons on how to separate the wheat from the chaff are vital. This should be required reading, but that may make it even more inaccessible. Let's do a study on that!
    • 4/5
      When I saw How to Lie with Statistics in the free books boxes I jut had to grab it. This is the grand-daddy of line of books about bias in statistics which lead to such descendants as John Allen Paulos’ A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper. I’s a short read that uses humor to impress the subject on the population rather than stridency.
    • 5/5
      An excellent, easily accessible book that explains common techniques for using statistics to deceive the unwary. The examples are dated-- there's a bit of culture shock in seeing discussions of income from half a century ago!-- but quite clear. The book has lost none of its relevance since it was written.
    • 5/5
      A classic. A great guide to understanding statistical claims in journalism, advertising and politics.
    • 4/5
      This old book is one that endures despite its age. It is a humorous look at how statistics can be used, manipulated, and twisted to say just about anything that you want. In the larger sense, it is important to understand how facts can be spun to represent or create the reality you want to portray.
    • 4/5
      A useful guide to looking carefully at how data is presented to you in popular media and how the conclusions are then drawn. More journalists should read this to avoid perpetuating the same errors. Editors should read it even more carefully. It is of course a guide to avoiding lies through the use of statistics. Very non-mathy and easily understandable, even if you didn't get any maths qualifiactions.