Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. . - New Books - book review

Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. Joel Best. University of California Press, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720. 2001. ISBN: 0-52021-978-3. 196 pp. $19.95, hardcover. Best casts a skeptical eye on the statistical claims of the media, politicians, and activists, who frequently exaggerate the severity of the social problems they are campaigning against.

Drawing on examples such as estimates of the numbers of homeless, annual anorexia deaths, and bow many people attended the Million Man March, Best explains how valid statistics can be misunderstood and transformed into grossly inaccurate factoids through innumeracy, deceit, and accident. Best suggests adopting neither a cynical nor a naive approach to statistical claims, but a skeptical one informed by knowledge of how statistics are generated and how they can be biased. A fine companion to John Allen Paulos's books such as Innumeracy and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group