Is That a Fact? Revised Edition: A Field Guide to Statistical and Scientific InformationWe are inundated by scientific and statistical information, but what should we believe? 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? How can we acquire reliable statistical information? Once we have it, how do we evaluate it? Despite the importance of these questions to our lives, many of us have only a vague idea of how to answer them. In this admirably clear and engaging book, Mark Battersby provides a practical guide to thinking critically about scientific and statistical information. The goal of the book is not only to explain how to identify misleading statistical information, but also to give readers the understanding necessary to evaluate and use statistical and statistically based scientific information in their own decision making. |
Contents
Why We Need to Think about Statistical and Scientific Information | 1 |
Introduction to Critical Thinking | 9 |
The Basics | 23 |
Sampling Woes and Other Biases | 39 |
Getting Good Data | 55 |
What Does it all Mean? | 67 |
The Power of Graphs | 83 |
What Goes with What?
| 99 |
Other editions - View all
Is That a Fact? - Second Edition: A Field Guide to Statistical and ... Mark Battersby Limited preview - 2016 |
Is That a Fact?: A Field Guide for Evaluating Statistical and Scientific ... Mark Battersby No preview available - 2009 |