Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data

by: Joel Best

Published by: University of California Press

Reviewed by Connie Anderson

Author Joel Best is a professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. Among his books is the bestselling Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians and Activists (2001).

Writing this review previous to the 2008 election was a good reminder to really think and question everything that is said, as well as every stat that is easily thrown out there to become reality. I may need a stat-spotter refresher after the elections.

The author makes statistics (or believing them) more unlikely. When huge numbers like trillions are used, the number is so big we cannot grasp it—so our head says: That’s “a lot.”

Story after media story Best shows us how the fact breaks down until the truth comes out at the bottom of the funnel. In sections on dubious data, you’ll read about blunders like slippery decimal points, botched translations, misleading graphs and careless calculations.

What about sources and claims? What did they count, and how did they count it?

Get the idea?

If blood, sex and crime sells on TV news, so do startling (ohmygosh) statistics.

On page 47, Best breaks down a story on “Teen Moms and Older Dads.” That title alone gave me images of 16-year-old girls with 35-year-old men. The initial story says that “1/6th of babies born to teen mothers had fathers who were at least 25.” That’s terrible, you might think, as I did—one out of every 16 had older fathers. This stat came from a 2002 study of 51,000 teen mothers in California. In the end it was only 2%—or less than 1,000.

Everyone is struggling to get media for their cause—and alarming us does it.

However this book shows us that over and over how stories that grabbed our heart and made us angry (or sad) may be based on dubious stats. With newfound disbelief built into your listening and reading life, you may often become frustrated.

I liked this book and look forward to having being more open and skeptical while listening and reading future stats and stories.

Armchair Interviews says: For anyone who ever thought: I wonder how they came up with that number? This book is for you. You’ll enjoy it.