More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues |  | Author: Joel Best
Publisher: University of California Press
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 125919
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 217
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0520238303
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.38
EAN: 9780520238305
ASIN: 0520238303
Publication Date: September 6, 2004
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Product Description
In this sequel to the acclaimed Damned Lies and Statistics, which the Boston Globe said "deserves a place next to the dictionary on every school, media, and home-office desk," Joel Best continues his straightforward, lively, and humorous account of how statistics are produced, used, and misused by everyone from researchers to journalists. Underlining the importance of critical thinking in all matters numerical, Best illustrates his points with examples of good and bad statistics about such contemporary concerns as school shootings, fatal hospital errors, bullying, teen suicides, deaths at the World Trade Center, college ratings, the risks of divorce, racial profiling, and fatalities caused by falling coconuts. More Damned Lies and Statistics encourages all of us to think in a more sophisticated and skeptical manner about how statistics are used to promote causes, create fear, and advance particular points of view. Best identifies different sorts of numbers that shape how we think about public issues. Entertaining, enlightening, and very timely, this book offers a basis for critical thinking about the numbers we encounter and a reminder that when it comes to the news, people count-in more ways than one. Illustrations: 15 line illustrations, 7 tables
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 The Best Damn Book You'll Read December 22, 2008
Norman Riggs (Los Angeles, CA)
If you want to realize how you are manipulated by number merchants, then study this book, take notes, copiously underline sections. If however, you want to believe what is spoon fed you from both the right and definitely the left, stay away.
Excellent book, highly recommended. I reference this in my college courses quite often.
Take a Number...with a Grain of Salt June 17, 2008
bronx book nerd (Bronx, NY USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Most of us accept data and statistics at face value when we encouinter them. Whether they are presented in a broadcast, print journalism or an academic journal, we generally assume they are valid and accurate. Joel Best explains to us in this highly readable book, written in plain language for the layperson, why this may not necessarily be so. Foremost, he makes the point that all data and statistics are human constructs, elements that exist only because they are created by humans thinking about something, and therefore vulnerable to all the biases and error of which humans are capable. We don't always know exactly why someone chose to measure a particular item and not another, or what biases they bring to the table. And we ourselves bring our biases into play, believing more in numbers that supoport our beliefs or predisposition.
Best guides the reader on how to identify those numbers that are particularly problematic - "magical" numbers; "missing" numbers - for example, so that we are better prepared to accept or reject them. Reading this will put you in a stronger position to evaluate data and information, thereby becoming a more critical consumer of data and statistics-filled information.
 Very basic; disappointing September 10, 2006
Ken (Granite Bay, California)
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
Based on the reviews on the cover of this book, and the reviews of others, I bought it expecting something new and original. Boy was I disappointed. Indeed, in the preface the author owns up: "I should confess that, in writing this book, I have done little original research. I have borrowed most of my examples from works by other analysts, mostly social scientists and journalists." Boy howdy, did he ever "borrow" them. So don't look here for anything new. I suspect this was just a quickly dashed together "sequel" to his first book, which I haven't read. So my advice is to skip this one.
 An Eye-Opening Look at a Subject Often Taken for Granted November 23, 2005
Jason Cooper (Birmingham, AL)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
I didn't read the first Damned Lies, but the author says that he is making the same points but organizing the information differently for this follow-up. This is one of those books that has the potential to radically alter how we look at numbers. Best shows the reader how a data set can be manipulated to give a desired result.
Best is careful not to single out one side of the political spectrum when making his points. Says the author: "I don't believe that any particular group, faction, or ideology holds a monopoly on poor statistical reasoning." Rather than wallowing in this often-debated territory, the author turns to spheres of academia and the sciences, where radical-sounding results lead to more and more publications and grant dollars. This is a world not seen by most pundits and commentators.
When the issue of school shootings was sensationalized during the late 1990s and early 2000s, accounts in the popular media left out statistics that showed school crime had actually fallen over the past decade. The author calls this omission "missing numbers." Given what looked like a spike in shootings from around 1997 to 2001, few would believe, without seeing those numbers, that there was a clear, growing problem in our schools.
In his chapter, "Confusing Numbers," Best shows how figures can be reported, sometimes in a disingenuous manner, to make them sound better than they are. A good example of this is cited when the author turns to the Bush tax cuts of 2001. The administration claimed that their package would reduce the average family's taxes by over $1,000. Opponents shot back that half of all families would see less $100 of relief. Clearly, this is a case in which averaging wildly lopsided numbers doesn't tell the whole story.
The subject here isn't an exciting one, but given the author's ability to use highly relevant examples and his penchant for fair-mindedness, I was able to work through most of this one. Recommended for those interested in research, public policy, or statistics.
The Type of Book That Everyone Should Read July 8, 2005
G. Poirier (Orleans, ON, Canada)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
It's always refreshing to read a book in which the author strips away the wrapping around statistical figures to expose what those figures really could mean and how to question their credibility. In this book, as in its predecessor (Damned Lies and Statistics, 2001), the author warns against believing as facts the statistical figures that are always presented to us from various sources - both authoritative and otherwise. The solution is to be critical and to ask questions such as: Who produced those numbers? Exactly what was counted? What are those numbers really saying? Is there a way to present the information in a clearer more objective way? At the end, the author strongly argues in favor of the development of some system in society that would impart, what he calls, statistical literacy in the population at large. The book is clear and well written; it should be widely read.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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