A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics: A Neuroscientist on How to Make Sense of a Complex World

by Daniel J. Levitin

Sometimes, the numbers are simply wrong, and it’s often easiest to start out by conducting some quick plausibility checks. After that, even if the numbers pass plausibility, three kinds of errors can lead you to believe things that aren’t so: how the numbers were collected, how they were interpreted, and how they were presented graphically.

Rigorous study of particular cases is a standard approach because it allows us to practice what we’ve learned in new contexts—what learning theorists call far transfer. Far transfer is the most effective way we know to make knowledge stick.