Proofiness

How You're Being Fooled by the Numbers

by

Paperback, 320 pages

Published Sept. 27, 2011 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:
978-0-14-312007-0
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(1 review)

In the tradition of Stephen Colbert's concept of truthiness, Proofiness explores the intersection of chicanery and mathematics.

The author explores regression, false correlation, Potemkin numbers, and a variety of other sketchy techniques used to make people think that the data reflect patterns that don't exist in actuality.

How to Lie With Statistics would strike me as a readalike.

2 editions

reviewed Proofiness by Charles Seife

Review of 'Proofiness' on 'Goodreads'

Interesting anecdotes about how the brain reacts to numbers. I agree with the author - drawing public attention to statistical lies is the best way to defeat them. OJ the wife-beater didn't have a 1 in 1,000 probability of becoming a wife-murderer; instead Nicole's chances of dying went up from 1 in 40,000 to 1 in 1,000.

A good overview of advertising, the press, polls, elections, and propaganda. Could have had more detail, more examples, and perhaps an appendix with more math - too many people today don't understand statistics at all.