Misused Statistics, Second Edition (Popular Statistics)

✍ Scribed by Herbert F. Spirer, Louise Spirer, A. J. Jaffe

• Publisher: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 278
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"Revised and updated edition of a standard in the field. Alerts readers to the problems, inherent in statistical practice-illustrating the types of misused statistics with well-documented, real-world examples, nearly half new to this edition, drawn from a wide range of areas, including the media, public policy, polls and surveys, political elections and debates, advertising, science and health care, and business and economics."

✦ Table of Contents

Preface......Page f005.djvu
Acknowledgments......Page f007.djvu
Contents......Page f009.djvu
Numbers Count......Page p001.djvu
Misusing Statistics: Some Facts of Life......Page p004.djvu
Why Knowledge of Misuses Is Important......Page p005.djvu
Some Consequences of Misuses......Page p009.djvu
Deliberate or Inadvertent?......Page p010.djvu
No Literary License Is Granted to Misusers of Statistics......Page p011.djvu
Introduction......Page p013.djvu
A Closer Look at the Categories of Misuses......Page p014.djvu
Summary......Page p026.djvu
Dr. K. Nowall at Work......Page p027.djvu
Some Real-World Examples......Page p028.djvu
Summary......Page p034.djvu
Introduction......Page p037.djvu
Preliminaries......Page p038.djvu
Numbers and Conclusions in Conflict......Page p044.djvu
Is It Hard to Be Intelligent About IQ Test Scores?......Page p052.djvu
Summary......Page p053.djvu
Introduction......Page p055.djvu
Bad Measurement at All Levels......Page p057.djvu
Data Without Sources......Page p058.djvu
Wrong Numbers......Page p060.djvu
Bad Measurement......Page p063.djvu
Disappearing Data......Page p069.djvu
More Is Less......Page p071.djvu
Summary......Page p072.djvu
Introduction......Page p075.djvu
Some Horror Pictures......Page p076.djvu
More Action in the Graphical Horror Show......Page p090.djvu
Summary......Page p094.djvu
Introduction......Page p097.djvu
Statistical Tools......Page p098.djvu
Experimental Design......Page p124.djvu
Summary......Page p126.djvu
Introduction......Page p129.djvu
Definition......Page p130.djvu
Conflicting Numbers......Page p135.djvu
Blatant Misinterpretation......Page p138.djvu
Statistical Significance: Misuse by Misinterpretation......Page p143.djvu
Summary......Page p146.djvu
Introduction......Page p147.djvu
First Principles......Page p148.djvu
Examples of Survey Misuse......Page p150.djvu
More to Come......Page p164.djvu
Introduction......Page p165.djvu
Uncertainty......Page p166.djvu
Using Sampling Error When Evaluating Survey Reports......Page p170.djvu
On the Bias: Nonsampling Errors......Page p173.djvu
Pay Attention to the Professional Pollsters......Page p175.djvu
Summary of Chapters 9 and 10......Page p178.djvu
Introduction......Page p181.djvu
Examples......Page p182.djvu
Introduction......Page p193.djvu
The Red Velvet Flag......Page p194.djvu
The Janus Effect......Page p195.djvu
Wild and Woolly Statements......Page p198.djvu
Assumption, Assumption, Who's Got the Assumption?......Page p199.djvu
Let's Be PC: Percentagewise Correct......Page p200.djvu
Old Misuses Never Die, They Don't Even Fade Away......Page p202.djvu
Cutting a Good Figure: Who's Counting?......Page p204.djvu
There Is Nothing Either Good or Bad, but Thinking Makes It So......Page p205.djvu
Summary......Page p206.djvu
Introduction......Page p211.djvu
Ghostbusting......Page p212.djvu
When Numbers Are Victims of Violence......Page p213.djvu
Summary......Page p225.djvu
Introduction......Page p227.djvu
In and Out of the Closet: Practices of Governments......Page p230.djvu
Ingenious Interpretations and Other Alterations: The Power-Drunk......Page p233.djvu
Smoke and Mirrors: Ectoplastistics in the Service of Power and Politics......Page p239.djvu
15 Afterword......Page p243.djvu
References......Page p245.djvu
Index......Page p259.djvu