This chapter will look at five common pitfalls in statistics and how you, the average consumer, can recognize them.

measure are often not exactly what we care about. We can measure how students do on multiple-choice questions.

When I see a lonely number in a news report, it always triggers an alarm: What should this lonely number be compared to? What was that number a year ago? Ten years ago? What is it in a comparable country or region? And what should it be divided by? What is the total of which this is a part? What would this be per person? I compare the rates, and on