Darrel Huff How To Lie With Statistics Summary

Upon reading Darrel Huff’s work “How to Lie with Statistics”, it’s clear that not everything we see on television or read in the newspaper carries as much credibility as promised. It’s easy to manipulate facts within the media, everyday advertisements, politics and so on, to make the presented statistics seem true to those who view them. It’s when the viewers investigate further into the data that they evaluate if the facts are truly accurate. There are many ways to check the credibility of statistical facts such as, looking closer at polls and surveys conducted by double checking for possible rigging, look into the facts for biased opinions; take the total number of participants into account, also watch for oversimplification or exaggeration.

They are used during government elections, medical research studies and so on. Obviously, we think of how this system can be flawed and possibly rigged to give a false outcome. Huff made some points in his book “How to lie with statistics” that we may not have considered to be true during a government election, he said “Some of the strongest feeling against public-opinion polls is found in liberal or left-wing circles, where it is rather commonly believed that polls are generally rigged.” (pg.26) Huff went on to say “Behind this view is the fact that poll results so often fail to square with the opinions and desires of those whose thinking is not in the conservative direction.” (pg.26)

This example refers to the polls that are held during an election and how people in the democratic party are quick to believe a vote is rigged instead of considering other reasons for the outcome. Some of these reasons could include indecisiveness of the voters or events that take place following the poll that will alter the stand-point of the