Author |
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Subject | Statistics in journalism, healthcare and politics |
Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
Publication date | March 2021 |
Pages | 200 |
ISBN | 9781474619974 |
How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them) is a 2021 British book by Tom and David Chivers. It describes misleading uses of statistics in the news, with contemporary examples about the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare, politics and crime. The book was conceived by the authors, who are cousins, in early 2020. It received positive reviews for its readability, engagingness, accessibility to non-mathematicians and applicability to journalistic writing.
Tom and David Chivers, cousins, wrote a proposal for the book in the first months of 2020 after complaining to each other about a news story with poor interpretation of numerical data. The proposal used a case study of deaths at a university that was cut from the final book and briefly mentioned the incoming COVID-19 pandemic. [1] At the time of writing, Tom Chivers was a science editor for UnHerd [2] —winning Statistical Excellence in Journalism Awards from the RSS in 2018 and 2020 [3] [4] —and author of one previous book, The Rationalist's Guide to the Galaxy. [5] David Chivers was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Durham. [2] Tom Chivers viewed journalists as more literate than numerate and incentivised to make information sound dramatic; David Chivers said the "publish or perish" motivation in academia could have a similar effect. [1]
The authors believed statistics could be given more prominence in school curricula and that numerical understanding should be viewed like literacy. Tom Chivers received some feedback from school and university teachers that they had use the book in their teaching. David Chivers said it was common to view maths as calculations rather than as interpretation of what numerical information means in context. [1]
The book was released in March 2021. [6] It concludes with a "statistical style guide", recommended for journalists. The authors presented this at the Significance lecture in 2021. [2]
An introduction outlines why the authors believe interpreting statistics is an important skill, with COVID-19 pandemic information to illustrate this. Each chapter covers a misleading use of statistics that can be found in the news:
The authors end with a recommended "statistical style guide" for journalists.
In a nomination for Chalkdust 's 2021 Book of the Year, a reviewer lauded the "readable and enjoyable" brevity of chapters, the clarity and conciseness of explanations and the utility for non-mathematicians. [7] Writing in The Big Issue , Stephen Bush approved of its light tone, informativeness and separation of expository mathematical material into optional sections. [5] Vivek Kaul of Mint praised its simplicity and the importance of the final chapter. [8]
Martin Chilton recommended the book in The Independent as informative and enjoyable, saying that the Chivers "make sense of dense material and offer engrossing insights". [6] [9] In The Times , Manjit Kumar described that "the authors do a splendid job of stringing words together so smartly that even difficult concepts are explained and understood with deceptive ease". [10] Rainer Hank of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said that he had learned much from the book and that such engaging educational materials, with little mathematical knowledge required, could lead to better journalism. [11]
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