Lies. Damn Lies...

...And Statistics

Published on June 8, 2005 By AlexMatheson In Humor

It never ceases to amaze me the conclusions that people draw from statistics. For instance, I heard on tv today about how nobody is reading books written by women any more. The reasoning behind this claim is that in a survey, 4 out of every 5 men interviewed said that the last book they read was by a man.

Mmmm.

What about the last but one book they read? Or the book before that? Maybe the 10 books previous to the last read by these men were written by women. Wouldn't that give a different slant to the poll? Then it'd be male writers whose books are not being read...

Just goes to show there's truth in the old saw "There's lies, damn lies and statistics."

Comments

Danny Bassette

on Jun 08, 2005

Torture numbers and they'll tell you anything...

Cordelia

on Jun 08, 2005

And did they interview any women? Gah, silly statistics.

Danny Bassette

on Jun 08, 2005

That's where the torture of numbers comes in. They might well have interviewed hundreds (or even thousands) of people of all races/genders/ages/whatnot, asking all the books they read in the last year or more, last ten, favorite authors, favorite color, why they read what they read, and so on. But if they wanted to make it sound like women written books aren't read, well they found a way to make the numbers say that. If they wanted to make the numbers say something else, well the more numbers they have handy the easier that is, just find the right filter for the conclusion you want. Nine out of ten women with blue mustaches hate chocolate, silly statistics indeed.

Furry Canary

on Jun 08, 2005

'Maybe the 10 books previous to the last read by these men were written by women.'
Why would there be a trend for the last book men read to be atypical of their reading habits? I agree that we have to be careful about interpreting statistics, but I don't believe this specific complaint is valid. As for Cordelia's suggestion that they did not interview any women, however, if this is true then yes - that seriously limits the nature of the conclusions that can be drawn.

AlexMatheson

on Jun 09, 2005

It's nice to see some comments being generated by my post. I'd like to add that it seems unlikely you could divine anything about anyone's reading habits, typical or atypical, just from knowing details of the book they read last. For instance, the last book I read was "lost boy lost girl" by Peter Straub. All you can infer from that with any certainty is that the last book I read was "lost boy lost girl" by Peter Straub. In much the same way as this little joke from Simon Singh's web site illustrates:

An astronomer, a physicist and a mathematician were holidaying in Scotland. Glancing from a train window, they observed a black sheep in the middle of a field.

"How interesting," observed the astronomer, "all Scottish sheep are black!"

To which the physicist responded, "No, no! Some Scottish sheep are black!"

The mathematician gazed heavenward in supplication, and then intoned, "In Scotland there exists at least one field, containing at least one sheep, at least one side of which is black."

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