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. Although a number of more recent versions have been released, the original edition contained humorous, witty illustrations by Irving Geis<ref>In 1961, Geis would go on to illustrate the first protein crystal structure ever discovered, that of a sperm whale myoglobin</ref>, which undoubtedly played a pivotal role in the success of the book.

The book is a brief, breezy illustrated volume outlining the [[misuse of statistics]] and errors in the interpretation of statistics, and how errors create incorrect 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. Two rows of small images would give a better idea than one small and one big one.

==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

# 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]]

==Notes==

[[Category:1954 books]]

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Statistics]]

==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}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:How To Lie With Statistics}}

{{mathpublication-stub}}

[[Category:1954 non-fiction books]]

[[Category:Statistics books]]

[[Category:Misuse of statistics]]