Statistics for Social Change

Statistics for Social Change is a broadly accessible introduction to statistical techniques and their misuse in explaining everyday life situations. Each chapter of the book is divided into two parts. In the first part there is a step by step explanation of statistical techniques, including the logic of statistics, percentages, graphs, averages, index numbers, variability, probability, estimation, regression and correlation analysis. In the second part, the authors provide applications of these techniques as well as show how they are abused by the advertising industry, the media, and the government when selling their products and policies to the American people. This is a book for everyone who wants to get a handle on the world and the ways it is statistically distorted.