Statistics and politics go back along way: the word "statistics" apparently comes from "state" as in data about the state.
Nature has a book review of
Politicians Manipulating Statistics: How they Do it and How to Oppose Them, by Michael Billig & Cristina Marinho Cambridge Univ. Press (2025)
Why politicians manipulate statistics — and what to do about it
Understanding the playbook that those in power use to twist numbers, and how they make others complicit, is only becoming more important in the post-truth world.
Book review By Ole J. Forsberg
"Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the name Donald Trump looms large in this book, with a whole chapter devoted to the statistical misdemeanours of the “master manipulator”, from his first term in office to the aftermath of his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 US presidential election.
...
"First, politicians manipulate statisticians, incentivizing them to produce manipulated statistics. Second, statisticians generate those manipulated numbers. Third, leaders use the manipulated statistics to manipulate their audiences."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment