Product Description

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 more 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 more
* A commonsense approach that doesn't require advanced math or statistics

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220225 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780520257467
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"An ideal guide for anyone who reads a newspaper, watches television, or surfs the Web. In short, everyone."--Numeracy

From the Inside Flap
"If you ever scan the newspaper, watch the TV news, or surf the blogs, you should read this charming book. If you're a journalist, read it twice."--James M. Jasper

"As we now swim in information, much of it bogus or biased, spotting dubious data is super important. In Stat-Spotting, Joel Best plays off the format of field guides to give readers good, common sense ways not only to sense bad data but to understand what's wrong. Broken up into short independent sections much like field guides to various flora or fauna, the book is easy and enjoyable to read. Easy, enjoyable, and valuable. I will recommend it to my students, and to others, as a resource for critical consumers of numbers."--Bernard Madison, University of Arkansas

"The purpose of Stat-Spotting is to help readers become more critical consumers of statistical claims. It is an important work addressing a significant problem in contemporary society: thoughtlessness about numerical claims. Best's work here provides a direct, accessible guide to critical readings of statistics."--Neil Lutsky, Carleton College

About the Author
Joel Best is Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. Among his many books are Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads, More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues, and Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists, all from UC Press.

Customer Reviews

Social Statistics - A Practical Guide
There are many books written on the interpretation of statistical information for the non-specialist. Some are quite engaging and difficult to put down; others are quite boring. I would place this little book roughly in the middle of that range - it's not the most gripping but it is certainly an eye-opener for those seeking guidance in this field. The author, a sociology professor, has divided the book such that each chapter addresses a type of question that a reader should ask when reviewing statistical information that may seem dubious or misleading. Each chapter opens with a brief digression on the issue at hand. This is followed by a practical example, i.e., a statistical "fact" that has been published in some medium and which the author analyzes in order to put this "fact" into perspective and in a manner that the reader can more easily interpret. The writing style is clear, authoritative and accessible to a wide audience. People seeking to make sense of the statistical data that floods our lives every day would benefit greatly from reading this concise little book.

Very Useful and Informative
One of the most important things one can do in this time of too much information is to be able to evaluate the information being presented to you. Stat-Spotting delivers by giving you tools and yardsticks to use in evaluating statistical and numerical information presented in the plethora of sources available to someone researching a topic.

This is a book that I suggest everyone read...

A high-level antidote to innumeracy
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 deaths per year, leading causes of death and their frequencies, and so on. He then points out that, for the most part, extreme outcomes tend to occur less frequently than moderate outcomes.

He then describes many ways in which dubious data can make its way into publication: mistakes, guesses, overly broad or narrow definitions, sample bias, etc.

This is an interesting and useful book, requiring no mathematical background, and a good antidote to numerical gullibility.