Critical Statistics: Seeing Beyond the Headlines

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Awarded the 2019 Most Promising New Textbook Award by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association. This accessible and entertaining new textbook provides students with the knowledge and skills they need to understand the barrage of numbers encountered in their everyday lives and studies. Almost all the statistics in the news, on social media or in scientific reports are based on just a few core concepts, including measurement (ensuring we count the right thing), causation (determining whether one thing causes another) and sampling (using just a few people to understand a whole population). By explaining these concepts in plain language, without complex mathematics, this book prepares students to meet the statistical world head on and to begin their own quantitative research projects. Ideal for students facing statistical research for the first time, or for anyone interested in understanding more about the numbers in the news, this textbook helps students to see beyond the headlines and behind the numbers.

Reviews

A much needed Huff for our times. * John MacInnes, University of Edinburgh, UK *
Never be lied to by statistics again: this book will teach you everything you need to know to combat dodgy data, spot shoddy stats, and to start constructing your own robust and reliable statistics. * Jude Towers, Lancaster University, UK *
This book provides a straightforward and timely tutorial in how to make informed decisions regarding which statistics are to be trusted. This is precisely the type of book needed to empower the public to disentangle the valid from the invalid in the information age. * Jennie E. Brand, UCLA, USA *
This book is a must for those taking introductory statistics courses. Rather than being a dry, technical textbook, it provides real-world every day examples of the use of statistics in everyday life. * John Jerrim, University College London, UK *
This book provides a welcome complement to the wide range of how to do statistics books that are available. It takes students in measured steps, providing useful exercises along the way. * Gillian Whitehouse, University of Queensland, Australia *
Critical Statistics provides an accessible and entertaining tour through the ways that statistics can be used to mislead us. It's a thorough introduction for people who shudder at the thought of data, but people who see themselves as experts will learn something from this too. * Mark Taylor, University of Sheffield, UK *
This is a highly readable introduction to the ways numbers are manufactured and misrepresented in today's society, teaching the importance of thinking critically about statistics and showing how to do better in our own learning and research. In the age of fake news, this is essential reading for all students of the social sciences. * Richard Harris FAcSS, University of Bristol, UK *
This is the perfect statistics book in an era in which it is so difficult to navigate the numbers and data we are exposed to in our everyday life. It helps the reader anyone, from students to more expert readers understand how difficult it is to interpret and utilize statistics in the news, and it teaches how to make better use of the incredible amount of data available today. * Maria Sironi, University College, London, UK *
This is a most impressive teaching resource. De Vries adopts an embedded approach to introduce students to statistical reasoning, guaranteed to increase student engagement with quantitative methods and to encourage a much-needed critical eye to quantitative evidence. * Stella Chatzitheochari, University of Warwick, UK *

Author Bio

Robert de Vries, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Kent, UK