Calling B******t - Carl T. Bergstrom & Jevin D. West

Calling B******t

By Carl T. Bergstrom & Jevin D. West

  • Release Date: 2020-08-04
  • Genre: Political Science
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 17 Ratings

Description

B******t isn’t what it used to be. Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data.
 
“A modern classic . . . a straight-talking survival guide to the mean streets of a dying democracy and a global pandemic.”—Wired

Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it’s increasingly difficult to know what’s true. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates b******t to high art. We are fairly well equipped to spot the sort of old-school b******t that is based in fancy rhetoric and weasel words, but most of us don’t feel qualified to challenge the avalanche of new-school b******t presented in the language of math, science, or statistics. In Calling B******t, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data.

You don’t need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Bergstrom and West exuberantly unpack examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern b******t.

We have always needed people who call b******t when necessary, whether within a circle of friends, a community of scholars, or the citizenry of a nation. Now that b******t has evolved, we need to relearn the art of skepticism.