How to Lie with Statistics: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Book by Darrell Huff}}

[[Image:How to Lie with Statistics.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]

{{sources|date=February 2022}}

{{Infobox book

<!-- |italic title = (see above) -->

| name = How to Lie with Statistics

[[Image:| image = How to Lie with Statistics.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]

| caption = Cover of the first edition

| author = [[Darrell Huff]]

| title_orig =

| translator =

| illustrator = [[Irving Geis]]

| cover_artist =

| country = United States

| language = English

| series =

| subject = [[Statistics]]<br/>[[Social science]]

| genre =

| publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]]

| pub_date = 1954

| english_pub_date =

| media_type = Print

| pages = 142

| isbn = 0-393-31072-8

| dewey = 311.2

| congress = HA29 .H82

| external_url =https://archive.org/details/howtoliewithstat0000darr

| external_host = [[Internet Archive]]

}}

'''''How to Lie with Statistics''''' is a book written by [[Darrell Huff]] in 1954, presenting an introduction to [[statistics]] for the [[general reader]]. Not a statistician, Huff was a journalist who wrote many how-to articles as a freelancer.

'''''How to Lie with Statistics''''' is [[Darrell Huff]]'s perennially [[best-selling]]<ref> "Over the last fifty years, How to Lie with Statistics has sold more copies than any other statistical text." J.M. Steele. "[http://www-stat.wharton.upenn.edu/~steele/Publications/PDF/TN148.pdf Darrell Huff and Fifty Years of ''How to Lie with Statistics'']. ''Statistical Science'', 20 (3), 2005, 205–209.</ref>

introduction to [[statistics]] for the general reader. Written in [[1954]], it is a brief, breezy, illustrated volume outlining the common errors, both intentional and unintentional, associated with the interpretation of statistics, and how these errors can lead to biased or inaccurate conclusions.

introductionThe to [[statistics]] for the general reader. Written in [[1954]], itbook is a brief, breezy, illustrated volume outlining the common[[misuse errors,of both intentionalstatistics]] and unintentional,errors associated within the interpretation of statistics, and how these errors can lead to biased orcreate inaccurateincorrect conclusions.

Over time is has become the most widely read statistics book in history and over one-half million copies have been sold in the English language edition alone. In [[2003]] the Department of Economics of [[Shanghai University]] published an edition in [[Chinese language|Chinese]].

The most recent edition — [http://htlws.it '''Mentire con le statistiche'''] – was published in Italian in June 2007.

In the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard textbook introduction to the subject of statistics for many college students. It has become one of the best-selling statistics books in history, with over one and a half million copies sold in the English-language edition.<ref name="fiftyyears">{{Cite journal|title=Darrell Huff and Fifty Years of ''How to Lie with Statistics''|author-first =J. Michael |author-last =Steele | author-link =J. Michael Steele |journal=Statistical Science |doi=10.1214/088342305000000205 |publisher =[[Institute of Mathematical Statistics]] |doi-access=free|volume=20|issue=3|date=2005|pages=205–209}}</ref> It has also been widely translated.

Some themes of the book are "[[Correlation does not imply causation]]" and "Using [[Random Sampling]]". It also shows how statistical graphs can be used to distort reality:

# By truncating the bottom of a line or bar chart, one makes differences seem larger than they are

#Themes Byof the book include "[[Correlation does not imply causation]]" and "Using [[random sampling]]." It also shows how statistical graphs can be used to distort reality. For example, by truncating the bottom of a line or bar chart so that differences seem larger than they are. Or, by representing one-dimensional quantities on a pictogram by two- or three-dimensional objects to compare their sizes, oneso makesthat the reader forgetforgets that the images don'tdo not scale the same way the quantities do.

==Chapters==

The original edition contained illustrations by artist [[Irving Geis]]. In a UK edition, Geis' illustrations were replaced by cartoons by [[Mel Calman]].

# The Sample with the Built-in Bias

* Discusses the importance of having a sample that is representative of the population and if this is not the case then a given sample cannot be used to make meaningful conclusions about the population.

# The Well-Chosen Average

# The Little Figures That Are Not There

# Much Ado about Practically Nothing

# The Gee-Whiz Graph

# The One-Dimensional Picture

# The Semi-attached Figure

# Post Hoc Rides Again

# How to Statisticulate

# How to Talk Back to a Statistic

==Notes and references==

<div class="references-small"><references/></div>

==See also==

* ''[[How to Lie with Maps]]''

*[[Exaggeration]]

*[[Lies, damned lies, and statistics]]

==External LinksNotes==

{{reflist}}

*[http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stat3.html How to lie and cheat with statistics] - like the book, this article explains how not to get cheated by '''other people''' who are trying to mislead you

==References==

* Darrell Huff, (1954) ''How to Lie with Statistics'' (illust. I. Geis), Norton, New York, {{ISBN|0-393-31072-8}}

==External links==

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Misuse of statistics}}

[[Category:1954 books]]

[[Category:Statistics]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:How To Lie With Statistics}}

{{mathpublication-stub}}

[[Category:1954 non-fiction books]]

[[Category:Statistics books]]

[[Category:Misuse of statistics]]