Standard deviations: flawed assumptions, tortured data, and other ways to lie with statistics

Did you know that having a messy room will make you racist? or that human beings possess the ability to postpone death until after important ceremonial occasions? as nobel prize-winning economist ronald coase once cynically observed, 'if you torture data long enough, it will confess.' lying with statistics is a timehonoured con. In standard deviations, economics professor gary smith walks us through the various tricks and traps that people use to back up their own crackpot theories.