A poor data sample is one of the biggest errors.Data can be consciously or unconsciously biased - by the statistician or the source. But without writers who use the words with honesty and understanding and readers who know what they mean, the result can only be semantic nonsense.” Statistical methods and statistical terms are necessary in reporting the mass data of social and economic trends, business conditions, “opinion” polls, the census. The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify. There may be more in them than meets the eye, and there may be a good deal less. “Averages and relationships and trends and graphs are not always what they seem. He explains the many ways data can be manipulated - to misrepresent facts, to tell a different story - in advertising, politics, and other areas and how to defend yourself from it. Darrell Huff’s book is about the long history of data deception.
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