Winning with Statistics: A Painless First Look at Numbers, Ratios, Percentages, Means, and Inference

It is surprisingly easy to lie with statistics while telling the truth. Simple tactics such as using the mean versus the median to determine the "average" of the data can lead to dramatic differences in the conclusions. By selectively expanding or shrinking aspects of a chart, it is possible to emphasize or de-emphasize particular aspects of a data set. Finally, by neglecting the context of the data, it is also possible to make the significant appear insignificant and the insignificant appear significant. All of these tactics are explained in this book along with some fundamental realities of probability. Even learned people can occasionally be fooled by some of the counterintuitive aspects of how probabilities combine. The general public is also bombarded by results based on polling and statistics with spin doctors doing all they can to present the data in a form that supports their position. Knowledge and vigilance are the only weapons that the citizen has to help them make some reasonable sense out of the morass of "facts." This book is one in a small set where every citizen should read at least one of them. In order to be able to make an intelligent and thoughtful decision about public policy and the people who make and carry it out, every person needs to know how data can be statistically twisted. That is the fundamental message in this book.