Stat-Spotting

Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today Alarming statistics bombard our daily lives, appearing in the news, on the Web, seemingly everywhere But all too often, even the most respected publications present numbers that are miscalculated, misinterpreted, hyped, or simply misleading Following on the heels of his highly acclaimed Damned Lies and Statistics and More Damned Lies and Statistics, Joel Best now offers this practical field guide to help everyone identify questionable statistics Entertaining, informative, and concise, Stat Spotting is essential reading for people who want to be savvy and critical consumers of news and information Stat Spotting features Pertinent examples from today s news, including the number of deaths reported in Iraq, the threat of secondhand smoke, the increase in the number of overweight Americans, and many A commonsense approach that doesn t require advanced math or statistics New Read Kindle ePUB Stat-Spotting by Joel Best – kino-fada.fr Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today These are facts that many of us never question, no matter how alarming the numbers are I see data and charts every day on the internet Too often we are fed and believe numbers that are miscalculated, misinterpreted, hyped, or simply misleading... Stat Spotting is a basic guide to recognizing questionable statistics The author, Joel Best, is a professor of sociology and criminal justice and the author of two previous books on the misuse of statistics He focuses mainly on the simple statistics found in news reports, so don t expect a detailed treatment of experimental design, regression analysis, or analysis of variance This is simply a guide to identifying numbers that don t make sense, or that are reported without enough context to ma Stat Spotting is a basic guide to recognizing questionable statistics The author, Joel Best, is a professor of sociology and criminal justice and the author of two previous books on the misuse of statistics He focuses mainly on the simple statistics found in news reports, so don t expect a detailed treatment of experimental design, regression analysis, or analysis of variance This is simply a guide to identifying numbers that don t make sense, or that are reported without enough context to make sense of,or that are presented in a way that is biased or misleading.Since his interest is mostly in sociological statistics he begins by laying out the background data that can put those numbers into their context US population, number of births and d...In a key case study in this otherwise useful book, the author himself engages in the kind of statistical misuse that the book is meant to warn against The speaks about the partisan uses of stats and cites the debates over deaths in Iraq as an example He rightly rejects the Iraq Body Count numbers as a methdologically flawed undercount He then mentions the 2006 Lancet study and notes that its method had greater rigor But then adds that the Lancet s 650,000 mortality figure was contradicted by In a key case study in this otherwise useful book, the author himself engages in the kind of statistical misuse that the book is meant to warn against The speaks about the partisan uses of stats and cites the...This book is an interesting overview of different smells to look for when digesting statistics from media sources While the examples and explanations of the different potential issues are interesting, my favorite part was at the beginning where he listed some of the baseline numbers that help put statistics in context things like current population of the US , for example I would use this book as a reference if I was evaluating questionable statistics,...Good coaching on evaluating statistics in media some a bit obvious but it definitely hones your awareness of data used to illustrate a point, such as selectively citing studies with small samples or using a lot of sources in a short period of time I would read Joel Best s DAMNED LIES AND STATISTIC...This is not a book that one sits down and reads Rather, it is a book that offers insights in little bites Best, introduces the reader to the reasons that statistics are often approached by many dubiously The style of the book is choppy, hence lending to ...Quick read, and surprisingly fun If you dig stuff like Freakonomics and Everything Bad is Good For You, which make you rethink your assumptions about the world, you ll probably dig this book Great intro to statistics for people like myself who can t stand books about math.Surprisingly an interesting read that offers examples of bad data so you can learn how to be a skeptical stat spotter.All statistics I read now are under close scrutiny, especially if they don t cite where they obtained their data.A quick read Very fun and informative There is a LOT of misinformation and mis reporting of statistics, whether from dishonesty or simple incompetence.

• English
• 08 March 2017
Joel Best
• Hardcover
• 144 pages
• 0520257464
• Joel Best
• Stat-Spotting