How to Make the World Add Up : Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers

by Tim Harford

I worry about a world in which many people will believe anything, but I worry far more about one in which people believe nothing beyond their own preconceptions.

That impulse was only human, and it was well-meaning – but it was not wise.8

Motivated reasoning is thinking through a topic with the aim, conscious or unconscious, of reaching a particular kind of conclusion. In a football game, we see the fouls committed by the other team but overlook the sins of our own side. We are more likely to notice what we want to notice.11

All we need to do is acquire the habit of stopping to think.22

Much of the data visualisation that bombards us today is decoration at best, and distraction or even disinformation at worst. The decorative function is surprisingly common, perhaps because the data visualisation teams of many media organisations are part of the art departments. They are led by people whose skills and experience are not in statistics but in illustration or graphic design.4 The emphasis is on the visualisation, not on the data. It is, above all, a picture.