Is That a Fact? - Second Edition: A Field Guide to Statistical and Scientific Information

Synopsis

How Much Should We Trust The Polls On The Latest Electoral Campaign? When A Physician Tells Us That A Diagnosis Of Cancer Is 90% Certain Or A Scientist Informs Us That Recent Studies Support Global Warming, What Should We Conclude? Questions Such As These Are Greatly Important, Yet Many Of Us Have Only A Vague Sense Of How To Answer Them. In Is That A Fact?, Mark Battersby Aims Not Only To Explain How To Identify Misleading Statistics, But Also To Give Readers The Understanding Necessary To Evaluate And Use Statistical Information In Their Own Decision-making. Graphs And Illustrations Are Used To Visually Illustrate Concepts, While Cartoons Liven The Discussion And Connect The Book's Ideas To Familiar And Humorous Contexts. This Second Edition Is Revised And Updated Throughout, And Includes A New Chapter On The Weighting Of Risks In Public Policy-making.-- How To Li(v)e With Statistics: Why We Need To Think About Statistical And Scientific Information -- Introduction To Critical Thinking -- Polling: The Basics -- Sampling Woes And Other Biases -- The Facts Ma'am, Nothing But The Facts: Getting Good Data -- Making Sense Of Data: What Does It All Mean? -- The Power Of Graphs -- Correlations: What Does With What? -- Finding The Cause: Evaluating Causal Claims -- Evaluating Scientific Claims: Looking At The Context -- Using What You've Learned: Finding And Evaluating Scientific Information -- Probability And Judgement -- Studies Show, But So What? -- Decision-making Examples: Individual Risk, Uncertainty, And Public Policy. Mark Battersby. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.