How much should we trust the polls on the latest electoral campaign? When a physician tells us that a diagnosis of cancer is 90% certain or a scientist informs us that recent studies support global warming, what should we conclude? Questions such as these are greatly important, yet many of us have only a vague sense of how to answer them.

In Is That a Fact?, Mark Battersby aims not only to explain how to identify misleading statistics, but also to give readers the understanding necessary to evaluate and use statistical information in their own decision-making. Graphs and illustrations are used to visually illustrate concepts, while cartoons liven the discussion and connect the book’s ideas to familiar and humorous contexts. This second edition is revised and updated throughout, and includes a new chapter on the weighting of risks in public policy-making.