How to Lie with Statistics Review

 How to Lie with Statistics


How to lie with statistics by Darrell Huff is a book that shows the importance of numbers.  As shown obviously by the title, the main focus is on how statistics are used in dishonesty and its flaws. The book explores concepts from the importance of statistics to its dishonest use to bend the information. We usually take statistics as fact because numbers cannot lie. The author delves deeper into uses and shows the readers how it is used to deceive.

Darrell Huff was born on July 15, 1913, in Gowrie, Iowa, and passed away on June 27, 2001, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. His most famous work is “How to Lie with Statistics” written in 1954, which was a best-selling statistics book. He was also a lobbyist for tobacco. In addition to being an author, he was also worked for tobacco companies explaining his influence in the tobacco industry. 

The book wasn’t the most entertaining read, but it was very informative. The concepts were well explained and were thought-provoking. For example, an idea present in the book was the flaws of statistics. I think this one was really important because it dropped my trust in statistical evidence. I think everyone is aware that numbers can be inaccurate due to different testing conditions. People asked, how they gathered the information, or even who gathered the information cannot be shown with numbers. Even trustworthy sources may not serve as complete factual evidence. The author’s skepticism provides some fascinating ideas making this book informative and refreshing. 

In general, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I did other novels, but it was a good change of pace from fiction stories to a nonfiction book. I don’t recommend this to story lovers, but anyone looking into statistics may find this useful. 

Comments

  1. Coleman C.October 16, 2020 at 7:44 PM

    It sounds like a very informative book! It seems especially relevant these days. We see misinformation a lot. Many people have an agenda, probably including the author. Statistics can always be manipulated to show a specific view of things. If used correctly, statistics are very helpful in many ways. If not done correctly, it can be a whole different story. I will definitely look out for this book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NateOctober 16, 2020 at 7:59 PM

    The book brings up a very interesting point about statistics. Its very thought provoking to see how much statistics is used to market a product and how it could have been easily warped to fit the needs of the advertiser to sell the product.

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