Numbers Lie. How Not to Let Statistics Deceive You

Reading at night shortens life. Video games provoke mass killings. Soda makes people aggressive. What?! No!
Every day, the media reports sensational discoveries and shocking research findings. But not all of them can be trusted: statistical errors, intentional fabrications, and obscure... flaws still exist.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, humanity was forced to take an accelerated course in statistics: now we understand graphs fairly well, have heard a bit about normal distribution, and are familiar with the survivor bias. But we still have much to learn: how do mathematical models work? What are absolute and relative risks? What do rankings mean? What is the Texas sharpshooter fallacy? Science journalist Tom Chivers and economics lecturer at Durham University David Chivers use examples from the prominent headlines of the COVID era to show how not to be deceived by numbers.