Rating: 
Summary: Figures Don't Lie, but Liars ¿
Review: How many times have we heard that 25% of women on American college campuses have been raped? Or, that 130,000 young women die each year from anorexia? Or, that most medical research has customarily been performed on behalf of men?Joel Best, a professor at the University of Delaware, has written a highly readable treatise on statistics, and how we can become better consumers of the statistical information that permeates the environment in which we live. Not only does he share some egregious examples of the misuse of statistics (as those described in the above paragraph), but he also explains how to become more discerning about statistics as they are (ab)used by partisans of various causes. This book is especially timely in the wake of the furor that erupted at a University of California campus recently when the Independent Women's Forum took out an ad in the student newspaper declaring "Take Back the Campus." The ad was critical of several statistics that are used by advocacy groups to distort the facts about male college students in their relations with women. One is the "25% of women ... raped" statistic cited above. Rape is a serious crime, that is universally abhorred, but a review of the study used to establish the 25% figure showed that the figure was misleading at best. Professor Best gives a thorough evaluation of this situation, leading to a conclusion that the actual figure is most likely less than 3%. You will not find a better book on how to read statistics and understand their implications. I strongly those who want to know how to discover the truth about important issues of our day to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: a good read, but I was expecting more
Review: I purchased this book online. During the process I thought I will never ever ever do this again, but in the end it turned out great. I like having the book in pdf format. The content of the book is good also.
Rating: 
Summary: Good points, but misleading applications
Review: If you have no backround in statistics and you tend to believe the numbers you see in the newspapers or on TV, then this book is a must for you. It offers a wealth of examples and explanations. (I would give it 5 stars for such readers.) On the other hand if you are already skeptical and have some knowledge of statistical methods you may find this book slow reading. Still it may have some value for you because it tells the story behind some of the frequently cited statistics that is interesting to read even if you know the statistics cannot be right. (3 stars.)
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY THE E-BOOK!
Review: It's a good book, don't get me wrong... But don't buy the e-book version! The process of downloading the thing -which ought to be very simple- is a byzantine mess. Thanks, Amazon, for screwing this up so completely. I will NEVER throw money down the drain like this again. By the way-- I never did get the e-book, I just checked the real book out of my university library.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THE E-BOOK!
Review: So Joel Best tells us what many of us already know, that statistic and polls lie. But there are a great deal of non-thinking political puppets out there who cannot fathom this fact and accept the lies. They refuse to believe that surveys and polls are as corrupt as the ideologies behind those who create them and are usually more corruptible than our politicians who use them. Anyone who sees a Dan Rather, Ted Kennedy, Charles Schumer, 60 Minute, Katie Couric, Al Franken or any other liberals poll number and believes them to be fair and balanced or honest has to be as gullible as a five year old or just plain stupid. Any poll, any question, any set of questions can be manipulated to produce the results that the questioner desires and once spoken on a Tim Russert, Wolf Blitzer or other left leaning TV spin shows the press repeats it as if gospel and if it helps some deviant liberal cause it becomes truth by repetition. It reminds me of two statements of the Hitler regime: tell a lie loud enough, often enough and long enough and the people will eventually believe it to be true. And then, isn't it fortunate for rulers that the people do not think? Sound perfectly appropriate for anyone who puts their faith in damn lies, polls and statistics.
Rating: 
Summary: Untangling the few facts from the various fictions
Review: This book delves into a few of the difficulties an individual would face if he or she tried to get an accurate count of and ultimately make conclusions about a phenomenon. Best gives the reader plenty of examples from the social sciences which demonstrate some of the problems encountered when trying to describe, measure, and ultimately make conclusions about various issues. Best adequately picks up the subject matter just before Darrell Huff's timeless text, How to Lie with Statistics, begins. Like Huff, Best argues that people have incentives to put numbers in front of us (Huff refers to this as axe-grinding), and it behooves us to know who is putting the statistic in front of us, why they chose to put this statistic before us, and most importantly, just how they derived this statistic. Because proponents (and opponents) of an issue, whom Best describes as 'Advocates', can control the way a statistic is generated and presented, we must closely scrutinize the numbers before us so that we can 'untangle the few facts from the various fictions'. Toward this end, the book gives the reader some very helpful questions he or she can ask when attempting to interpret a descriptive (summary) statistic. The practical utility of Best's text is not solely limited to issues in the social sciences. One could easily apply Best's argument to, for example, the ongoing environmental debate. As such, this book is a vital component in developing critical thinking skills that can be applied in all areas both personal and professional. Finally, although this text focuses exclusively on descriptive statistics, limiting itself to contentious and controversial topics in the social sciences, readers should take note that Mr. Best is not presenting a truly original and comprehensive treatment of the subject matter. For example, David S. Moore, author of the text Statistics, Concepts and Controversies, provides a concise, yet rigorous, entertaining and accessible treatment of the same subject matter- including a wider range of examples culled from the fields of education, social and medical sciences, all in the first fifty pages of his text.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading
Review: This book should be required reading for all students in high school or college. Joel Best has done a great job of exposing the fact that most reporters today are either lazy or biased in covering most of the news today that involves the use of statistics. There are many examples in this book of how statistics are manipulated, skewed or just plain invented out of thin air to support a position of many advocacy groups. While Best goes into some of the "mechanics" of how statistics are misunderstood, he does a great job of exposing the truth about how public policy and opinion are shaped without a full understanding of what the issues really involve.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent light read
Review: This book was an excellent starter in thinking critically about statistics. It was used as a textbook for a short college seminar I took, and I feel it really added to the material we discussed. However, it is wordy at times, without having much depth. If you're just starting to think about statistics, I recommend this, but you won't find a ton of content here.
Rating:
Summary: Reading and understanding statistics for good decisions
Review: This is a book about reading and understanding statistics. It is not a book on research methods. As a book that helps to analyze and think critically about statistics, however, it is a book on methodology: the critical comparison of method issues. Best’s point is a central issue in modern industrial democracy. If we are going to make effective policy choices as citizens and voters, we must understand the issues on which we make decisions. The same holds true for the decisions we make in business life and in research. Many of the choices we make are based on statistical evidence. To make informed choices, therefore, we must be able to think about statistics. A quick summary of the issues and topics in this book offers a good overview of clear thinking on statistical issues. Chapter 1, “the importance of social statistics,” explains where statistics come from, how we use them, and why they are important. Chapter 2, “soft facts,” discusses sources of bad statistics. Guessing, poor definitions, poor measures, and bad samples are the primary sources of based statistics. Good statistics require good data; clear, reasonable definitions; clear, reasonable measures; and appropriate samples. Chapter 3 catalogues “mutant statistics,” the methods for mangling numbers. Most of these arise from violating the four requirements of good statistics, but a new problem arises here. Where is relatively easy to spot bad statistics, mutant statistics require a second level of understanding. As statistics mutate, they take on a history, and it becomes necessary to unravel the history to understand just how - and why - they are mutant. Transformation, confusion, and compound errors create chains of based statistics that become difficult to trace and categorize. Chapter 4, “apples and oranges,” describes the dangers of inappropriate comparison. Dangers arise when comparisons over time involve changing and unchanging measures, and projections. Comparison among places and groups lead to problems not merely in the data measured, but in the ways that data may be gathered and collated. Comparison among social problems also creates unique difficulties. Best offers logic of comparison to help the reader understand how to make sense of good comparison and bad. Chapter 5, “stat wars,” describes the problems that arise when advocates use questionable numbers to make a case. Chapter 6, “thinking about social statistics,” sums up Best’s advice on understanding statistics. Don’t be awestruck in the face of numbers, and don’t be cynical about them, he suggests. Be critical and thoughtful. This book is recommended for every non-statistical researcher who is required to make some use of statistical results in his or her work. It will be especially helpful for those designers who belong to the 2% of the population that one study identifies as victims of UFO abduction. ....
Rating:
Summary: Needs more beef
Review: This is a short book which could be shorter without compromising its message. The author explains in very easily understandable terms the perils of misinterpreting public presentations of statistical data. Perhaps he was trying to keep it simple, but I felt that he repeated himself too often. I would have appreciated more examples of actual cases of flawed statistical reporting. It would have helped his case to provide some examples of good uses of statistics. With the author, I wish the media, as the willing or unwitting conveyors of misleading statistics, were more mindful of the flawed information they present to the public.
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