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"The classic book “How to Lie With Statistics,” first published in 1954, is probably the biggest bestseller of all time on how to make sense of numbers

 

That’s the argument made by Tim Harford, an economist and BBC journalist. And his research shows that the author of “How to Lie With Statistics,” Darrell Huff, took steps to use his arguments to actively obscure rather than to inform. “Huff ended up working for the tobacco lobby, attacking the epidemiologists and the statisticians and the doctors who had used statistics to provide compelling evidence that smoking cigarettes was very bad for your health,” says Harford. “And I don't think this is a coincidence because actually his modus operandi of being funny and casting doubt and giving people a reason to not take the experts too seriously—that was absolutely perfect for the tobacco lobby’s strategy.”"

Via NextLearning