Re:How to Lie With Statistics

[Mike Bohan <mike.bohan@YALE.EDU>]

Hello Radsafers,



Two other great references in this vein are:



"How to Lie with Charts" by Gerald E. Jones, Sybex, Inc., 1995 and

"The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", by Edward R. Tufte,

Graphics Press, 1983. They provide the same kind of info on how charts

are used to bamboozlle the unwary.



<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

Michael J. Bohan, RSO   |  e-mail: mike.bohan@yale.edu

Yale-New Haven Hospital |    Tele: (203) 688-2950

Radiological Physics    |     FAX: (203) 688-8682

20 York St. - WWW 204   |    As usual, everything I say may be plausibly

New Haven, CT    06510  |    denied at my employer's convenience ...

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Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 15:20:14 -0700

From: Steven Dapra <sjd@swcp.com>

Subject: Re:  Slightly off topic, but apropos



March 24



This initial posting had a link to an article about statistics

and how they can be manipulated.



During my brief college career I took an entry level course in statistics

and one of the required books was "How to Lie With Statistics," by Darrell

Huff (W. W. Norton, 1954; 142 pp.).  It is listed on Amazon.com, so

apparently it is still available for purchase.  (This is not an

advertisement, and I am not getting any commissions from anyone.)



"How to Lie" is dated, but it is clearly written at the layman's level,

and is entertaining as well.  I would recommend it to anyone who wants to

learn to recognize the main techniques that are used to manipulate

statistics and to bamboozle the unwary or those who are un-informed about

the use of statistics.



Steven Dapra

sjd@swcp.com

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