Commentary On How To Lie With Statistics By Darrell Huff

Improved Essays
Although written almost 50 years ago, Darrell Huffs extraordinary book, How to Lie with Statistics, was a great read. Each chapter came with a lesson that is very important to learn. Each lesson is good to know so that you won 't get tricked. Now-a-days, people are very gullible and believe anything they hear especially if what they hear is “proven” with statistics. Are these statistics real? After reading chapter 1 of Darrell Huffs shows that we can see the reality of things that way we will not be tricked at all. To do this, he teaches us how to lie with statistics. While reading Chapter 1, Huff tells us that “The Average Yaleman, Class of '24, makes $25,111 a year.” (P. 11) is most likely very unlikely to be true. Anything that is that specific might not be real. He finds it very hard to …show more content…
Huff I would totally agree with everything he said. I would thank him endlessly for all the information he has given me. I agree with the fact that a lot of statistical data is an art form and is done to get a result that people want. You have to be on the look out all the time because not everything is as it seems to be. I also agree that it is a good way to learn how to lie so you can be aware of everything that is going on. I agree because if you know how it is done, you won 't fall victim to it. I don 't disagree with anything that Huff says due to the fact that I was moved by the things that he said and the way that he carried out the lesson. This book was an extraordinary read for me. It gave me a much deeper insight into statistics. Now, I can be on the look out and also help others realize the nature of statistics. Not everything is as it seems to be. This book inspires me to find some fallacies that statistical graphs and numbers show in the current-day news. It also inspires me to read thoroughly and question everything about statistical data. Not everything is how it seems to be, make sure to read it correctly and look at the big

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Your use of statistical figures is commendable and underscores the informative nature of scientific research papers. However, I noted that you failed to reference information sourced from other writers or contexts. This establishes plagiarism. Please confer on the referencing styles of APA and MLA as well as others to prevent the risk of plagiarism.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    You know Twinkies and Ho-hos, go-gurts and Lucky Charms; you know Dr. Pepper and Pepsi, and Totino’s and Blue Bell. But do you recall how much sugar is in them all? Without literally reading their nutrition labels, author Michael Moss assembles the facts about snacks and explains what makes these food-products as tempting as they are. Additionally, Moss uses his article, “The Extraordinary Science of Addicting Junk Food,” to establish a case which labels food manufacturers as chief culprits in the American obesity epidemic. Nevertheless, Moss’s article presents a few logical fallacies in the areas of ethos, but beautifully uses logos and pathos to express his main idea.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In MIT Student Joanna MacKay’s essay, Organ Sales Will Save Lives, she argues that the selling of human organs should be legalized. She mentions that government regulation of human organs would save lives since people are suffering and dying. No drugs can cure a failed kidney so people use dialysis, a long, expensive, temporary solution. MacKay notes that in the year 2000 there were 2,583 American deaths waiting for a transplant and 50,000 worldwide (157). There is a long wait list for transplants so people turn to the black market to buy a live kidney, versus a cadaverous transplant.…

    • 1391 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Effective Messaging The documentary Inequality for All focuses on what happens to an economy when income inequality rates begin to sore sky high. Narrated by Robert Reich, he talks about how America came to be a nation of massive income inequality, the consequences of it and how to solve it. One of the most impressive things the film does, is a take a topic people study for years and turn it into an easily understandable 90-minute film. The documentary Inequality for All effectively got its message across through, accurate statistics, memorable visual aids, and real-life stores and firsthand accounts.…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson she discusses and breaks down the activity of lying into different kinds of lies. Ericsson goes into great detail of about 10 of them, but there are many more. Some lies are for your peace of mind and maybe still bad for both parties, and some are for the better of someone else’s feelings. Ericsson believes that even if you feel you are perfect, nobody is and still tell lies no matter big or small, we do it and at times are unaware that it is considered a lie. Individuals nowadays get to a point where they are lying and don’t know whether to believe themselves or others.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Video games are known to be played all around the world by various genders and ages. The increasing popularity of the games has led to the common debate of their effects on society’s youth. In the article “Do Video Games Kill?”, Karen Sternheimer sheds light on the impact violent video games have on impressionable minds. She argues that the media has failed to educate the public by providing them with thorough research about the topic. Sternheimer stands with her opinion that video games and violence simply coexist and do not correspond with each other.…

    • 1516 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    2.07 Critical Thinking

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What does all this data make you think? Did any feelings come up? What confused you? What surprised you? What did you want to learn more about?…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Deception plays a key and controversial role in the ethics of psychological research. In psychology, deception occurs either when information is withheld from participants (omission) or when participants are intentionally misinformed about an aspect of the research (commission). This essay will explore whether participants in psychological experiments should ever be deceived regarding the true nature of the experiment. This will be analysed by discussing the arguments for and against deception using some controversial case studies in research. Non deceptive methods of research do not always allow researchers to explore true findings.…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Police brutality is one of the most disputed political controversies influencing a diverse range of American citizens in today’s society. In order to find a solution to this widespread debate, many state governments have implemented the use of body cameras on police officers to monitor the behavior between police officers and citizens during potentially controversial situations. In “Why police body cameras would work” , Mark O’Mara demonstrates the direct relationship between the number of body cameras on police officers and the enhanced behavior of citizens and officers. This article was published days after the grand jury decided not to charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo over Eric Garner’s death, an incident captured entirely on video. O’Mara published the article on CNN, a credible source of news shown to a large population of people.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Washinton post used a couple of statistics to report the intensity of police brutality in the United States and these figures and diagrams depicted a clear picture of the reality in a way that even the layman can understand the intensity of the issue. With Ted Mellnik, John Muyskens and Amy Brittain contributing to this report on May 30th, they stated that “…at least 385 people shot and killed by police nationwide during the first five months of this year, more than two a day…almost 1 in 6 were unarmed, or carried toys that only appeared deadly…”. The fascinating part was that, the paper presented diagrams that illustrates the statistics in detail. This style of reporting shows that statistical functions are very powerful.…

    • 170 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One should also notice that she used very few of these statistics. The statistics she used were also very specific. “Even so, only 27 percent of Americans have a bachelor’s degree or higher. That leaves an awful lot who succeed without college” (Lee 10). Linda Lee uses a statistic here that only applies to students who have a bachelor’s degree or higher.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Todd Starnes, the author of “Americans agree with Trump: The illegal immigrants must go”, is the host of Fox News and Commentary and has recently written a book on the traditional values of America and how America has changed over time since the founding of the country. In the book, he talks about George Washington’s warnings, including staying away from foreign affairs which has caused problems in America today. When America started to get involved in foreign affairs in the early 20th century, immigrations had grown as many foreigners had come to America for better life quality and many other reasons and has since caused many issues that have stayed to this day. Todd Starnes explains how Donald Trump has now either influenced Americans or…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abelson argues that good judgement with statistics in social science has been lost because there is considerable focus on null hypothesis testing (Abelson, 2). Statistical results that are shared should always be prefaced with a context and be provided with comparison groups. Also, it should never be the case for researchers to come up with an absolute conclusion once a model reaches the threshold of…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article, “My enemy’s enemy is my friend” it talks about a case study done at the University of Texas by two people of the name Elliot Arson and Vernon Cope to test a hypothesis that people will like people who dislike the same person as them, or like someone if they like the same people as them. This runs off of the theory that some people may believe that because they share the liking or disliking of someone that they are similar people with the same values and beliefs, this can be derived from the balance theory. When considered, this hypothesis is easily thought of to be accurate. With this hypothesis, there can be many other hidden factors that can play into these situations.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Barnard College, Meryl Streep SUBSTANCE/CONTENT: “Hello, I’m Meryl Streep and today, Class of 2010, I am very honored and I am humbled to be asked to pass on tips and inspiration to you for achieving success in the next part of your lives.” Image learning about success from one of the most successful actresses. She begins to explain that her success depended on putting her problems on other people, which is not the best idea. She then goes on to explain how she became an expert at her career and the skills she needed to become great, such as kissing. Shortly after that, she explains that women survive by pretending and acting because women have to change who they are for everyone else, just as she did in high school for boys to notice her.…

    • 1661 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics