How to Lie with Statistics

How to Lie with Statistics is considered a classical text on statistical literacy. Decades after its publication in 1954, it remains relevant to topical issues and continues to be widely used as an introductory text to statistics. This is due to the accessibility of its writing and the examples Darrell Huff uses to illustrate his points.

This book received critical acclaim upon its release, including two positive reviews from The New York Times. In recent years, it was featured in articles such as 2014’s “Best Books for Investors: A Short Shelf” by Jason Zweig for The Wall Street Journal. It also received praise from Bill Gates due to its relevant subject matter. To this day, How to Lie with Statistics remains one of the best-selling and most-read books on statistics. The English version has sold over one million copies and been translated into 22 languages.

The immediate and longstanding success of the book can be attributed to several factors. Huff’s writing uses humor, an informal tone, and easy-to-understand examples and anecdotes. The text’s approachability is also supported by the cartoon illustrations of Irving Geis and its attention-grabbing title. The common theme of these factors is that they make it easy for the general reader to connect with the book’s material.

This ease of access to the text led to its adoption in the classroom. Beginning in the 1960s, many universities added the book to their curricula. It appeared on the reading lists for mathematics courses at the University of California and Harvard University in recent years. Because of its content, How to Lie with Statistics serves as a tool to help students gain a better understanding of statistics and develop stronger critical-thinking skills. Its examples of statistical manipulation and misuse can also be used to illustrate key concepts in statistics, such as correlation and causation, sampling bias, and measures of central tendency.

Despite its popularity, some criticisms arose of the book and its author. To those familiar with statistical analysis, Huff’s writing style often comes across as overly simplistic and glosses over areas in which the reality of the statistics has more nuance. However, because the book’s intended audience is beginners who want an introduction to critical statistics analysis, a deep dive into the subject could turn them off. Arguments also appear that the book is outdated. For example, many of the tricks the book presents for recognizing bad statistics have more relevance to the advertising practices of the 1950s than to places where manipulative statistics appear today. The rise of computers and easy access to statistics-generating software for the general public also render some of the book’s content obsolete. It is also argued that his skeptical approach to statistics may lead the uninformed to distrust statistics altogether, even those that use good data and careful reporting, despite Huff’s cautioning against this in the text. Finally, the controversy surrounding Huff’s connections to tobacco lobbying in the 1960s led some people to avoid the book on principle.