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de Vries 2018
Robert de Vries (Author profile, Kent.ac.uk)
Critical Statistics (Publisher's site for book)
(Macmillan, Red Globe Press, 2018)
Initial comments
In this meticulously researched book Robert de Vries pulls no punches in accusing newspaper publishers and other media, advertisers, campaigners and politicians alike of being more interested in attention-grabbing headlines than in the truth behind the statistics they (mis-) quote. After reading it, teachers, researchers and students will see attention-grabbing and deliberately misleading statistical headlines everywhere, and I mean everywhere.
He writes in an easy, fluent, informal (appealingly flippant?) style accessible to, and addressing the concerns of, today's student audiences (abortion, environment, racism, equality, poverty, unemployment, drugs, social media, energy drinks, diet supplements, smartphones) His occasionally picturesque and memorable vocabulary ("zombie" statistics, "b*llsh*t" claims) may not appeal to those of a puritanical disposition: everyone else will love it.
He draws the reader gently in to why statistics matter, not how to calculate them although there are one or two tables and figures in his examples. The example and exercises are there to make readers think, and they do: they will encourage readers to embark on their own searches and may even make readers want to learn some actual statistics.
A particularly nice touch is a facility for users to add their own examples.
At one point he wonders what happened to investigative journalism: in relation to statistics he may be right, but he might be encouraged by the non-statistical House of Saud: A Family at War and A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad (recently broadcast by the BBC) and by investigations by the Sunday Times and Washington Post of Russian connections with the election of Trump in the USA and funding of the Brexit campaign in the UK.
He seems to have invented some new variables to add to existing psychological variables like Nach (Need for achievement): N£$€ (Need for ££/$$/€€) and Ntruth (Need for truth) in which N£$€ always outweighs Ntruth.
He draws the reader gently in to why statistics matter, not how to calculate them although there are one or two tables and figures in his examples. The examples and exercises are there to make readers think, and they do: they will encourage readers to embark on their own searches and may even make readers want to learn some actual statistics.
The dozens of URLs in the book are up-to-date and (unlike MacInnes 2017) available direct from the companion site.
Rather than at the end of each chapter, notes are at the end of the book (irritating when making frequent checks)
However, there are not that many bibliographic references in the index: the reader must hunt through URLs, many of which are to books and/or journal articles which are not open source.
Some references which are relevant and perhaps should have been included are:
Morris Rosenberg
The Logic of Survey Analysis
(New York, Basic Books 1968)
Tim Leggatt [Ed]
Sociological Theory and Survey Research: Institutional Change and Social Policy in Great Britain
(Sage 1974)
E J B Rose et al
Colour and Citizenship: a Report on British Race Relations
(London : Oxford University Press; for The Institute Of Race Relations (1969)
Oh, and in his discussion of pushy parents giving their children special diets to make them more intelligent, he should perhaps have mentioned the "Hawthorne effect"
Critical Statistics (Publisher's site for book)
(Macmillan, Red Globe Press, 2018)
Initial comments
In this meticulously researched book Robert de Vries pulls no punches in accusing newspaper publishers and other media, advertisers, campaigners and politicians alike of being more interested in attention-grabbing headlines than in the truth behind the statistics they (mis-) quote. After reading it, teachers, researchers and students will see attention-grabbing and deliberately misleading statistical headlines everywhere, and I mean everywhere.
He writes in an easy, fluent, informal (appealingly flippant?) style accessible to, and addressing the concerns of, today's student audiences (abortion, environment, racism, equality, poverty, unemployment, drugs, social media, energy drinks, diet supplements, smartphones) His occasionally picturesque and memorable vocabulary ("zombie" statistics, "b*llsh*t" claims) may not appeal to those of a puritanical disposition: everyone else will love it.
He draws the reader gently in to why statistics matter, not how to calculate them although there are one or two tables and figures in his examples. The example and exercises are there to make readers think, and they do: they will encourage readers to embark on their own searches and may even make readers want to learn some actual statistics.
A particularly nice touch is a facility for users to add their own examples.
At one point he wonders what happened to investigative journalism: in relation to statistics he may be right, but he might be encouraged by the non-statistical House of Saud: A Family at War and A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad (recently broadcast by the BBC) and by investigations by the Sunday Times and Washington Post of Russian connections with the election of Trump in the USA and funding of the Brexit campaign in the UK.
He seems to have invented some new variables to add to existing psychological variables like Nach (Need for achievement): N£$€ (Need for ££/$$/€€) and Ntruth (Need for truth) in which N£$€ always outweighs Ntruth.
He draws the reader gently in to why statistics matter, not how to calculate them although there are one or two tables and figures in his examples. The examples and exercises are there to make readers think, and they do: they will encourage readers to embark on their own searches and may even make readers want to learn some actual statistics.
The dozens of URLs in the book are up-to-date and (unlike MacInnes 2017) available direct from the companion site.
Rather than at the end of each chapter, notes are at the end of the book (irritating when making frequent checks)
However, there are not that many bibliographic references in the index: the reader must hunt through URLs, many of which are to books and/or journal articles which are not open source.
Some references which are relevant and perhaps should have been included are:
Morris Rosenberg
The Logic of Survey Analysis
(New York, Basic Books 1968)
Tim Leggatt [Ed]
Sociological Theory and Survey Research: Institutional Change and Social Policy in Great Britain
(Sage 1974)
E J B Rose et al
Colour and Citizenship: a Report on British Race Relations
(London : Oxford University Press; for The Institute Of Race Relations (1969)
Oh, and in his discussion of pushy parents giving their children special diets to make them more intelligent, he should perhaps have mentioned the "Hawthorne effect"