Rob swears that 99 out of 100 librarians recommend Proofiness by Charles Seife

Potemkin Numbers|Cherry-picking|Fruit-packing|Regression to the moon

In the OJ Simpson murder case, lawyer Allan Dershowitz took Simpson’s previous arrest for battering his wife and used it as an argument against Simpson’s guilt as murderer. How? By producing the statistic that only 1 batterer in a thousand ends up killing his wife.

Women who have had abortions are up to six times more likely to commit suicide. Assuming that the abortions led to the suicides, South Dakota enacted a law requiring women be warned about suicide risk before having an abortion.

In 2005 anthropologists published a study in Nature showing that Olympic athletes who wore red tended to win over athletes who wore blue.

Numbers do lie! Find out how in Proofiness.