- Paperback: 245 pages
- Publisher: Longman (Sep 1979)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060429755
- ISBN-13: 978-0060429751
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,053,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
We may have an instinctive skepticism of advertising, advice-giving, evangelizing, and other attempts to influence us. But how do we cultivate the ability to recognize and challenge dubious claims -- especially when those claims are based on "research"? (Nine out of ten doctors prefer. . .)
Huck and Sandler's book, first published in 1979, is an entertaining excursion into this territory. Using 100 sample cases, they first present and then deconstruct interpretations of research results ranging from studies by university professors to the lab experiments of popcorn-seller Orville Redenbacher.
Did outdoor advertising increase the name recognition of Miss America? Are intelligent people more likely to be "strange"? Does getting a free Whopper put you in a mood to help out someone else?
Maybe and maybe not. It depends on how you look at the test results. Huck and Sandler show the many ways that research methodology can skew results and the many ways that data can be interpreted and misinterpreted.
Take the time to puzzle over each sample case before looking at the authors' analysis. You will begin to sharpen your own abilities (maybe long dormant) to question the judgement of self-proclaimed experts and the tyranny of other people's statistics.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant. Should be required reading for Environmentalists
27 May 2011
Format:Paperback
This book taught me more about *rational* scientific skepticism than five years as a post-graduate (during which I was no slouch at seeing flawed assumptions). Example after example is explained, clearly and thoroughly, showing why an apparently convincing body of data is fraught with very serious reasons to dismiss the obvious interpretation it suggests. Failure to recognize the essential flaws, narrow context, correlation without causation etc. dominates Environmental 'science', particularly in the doomsday scenarios that are repeatedly raised (e.g. supposed: global warming, ozone destruction, vanishing water supplies, landfill crises).
University professors no longer know the foundation of their own field: proper and effective scientific *epistemology*.
University professors no longer know the foundation of their own field: proper and effective scientific *epistemology*.
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
