Calling Bullshit

June 15, 2020
Part playful polemic and part serious scientific treatise on a plague that "pollutes our world by misleading people about specific issues and...undermines our ability to trust information in general." Beginning with a provocative opening line--"The world is awash with bullshit, and we're drowning in it"--Bergstrom and West deliver a sturdy guide to helping readers avoid a lifetime of being bamboozled by misinformation. As they note, much of what seems factual and statistically sound is often nothing but bullshit. The authors differentiate between what they refer to as "old school bullshit," which is mostly rhetorical and language-based, and "new school bullshit," which refers to the cagey manipulation of mathematics and scientific data to create the illusion of sophistication and factual accuracy. The authors focus mostly on the latter, methodically examining the many characters well-versed in the art of bullshitting, whether they are scientific or medical researchers, advertisers, or other professional manipulators desperate to pull the wool over the public's eyes in pursuit of profit and power. Bergstrom and West direct our attention to the technocrats and social media giants who facilitate mass disinformation and preside over machine-learning algorithms that are often faulty. The authors occasionally go too heavy on the statistical analysis, which can get long-winded and make readers pine for the more attitude-driven polemical salvos aimed at bullshitters earlier in the book. Nonetheless, the authors make plenty of crucial and original points, especially in outing the current trend toward conflating association with causality, not to mention exposing how numbers and percentages are routinely manipulated in order to turn us all into mindless consumers. However abstruse they might get on any given page, Bergstrom and West give you the tools needed to make yourself bullshit-proof--a skill that will prove to be ever more important as big data continues to proliferate. A statistically challenging master class in the art of bullshit detection.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 29, 2020
Evolutionary biologist Bergstrom (coauthor, Evolution) and data scientist West deliver an informative and energetic examination of the ways in which data can be misused to influence audiences. Bergstrom and West discuss familiar concepts such as confirmation bias, false equivalencies, and selection bias, and explore how bar charts, line graphs, and other visual representations of data provide fertile ground for manipulation. They break down the bad information behind a dizzying number of false or misleading claims published in advertisements, press releases, news articles, and scientific research (for example, that the third Monday in January is “the saddest day of the year”), and explain how poorly or carelessly designed algorithms can result in racial and gender discrimination. In addition to providing tools to ferret out misinformation, including lists of fact-checking websites and instructions on how to “corroborate and triangulate” suspicious claims, Bergstrom and West highlight the importance of “calling bullshit” when confronted with it (they do advise readers not to assume bad faith—sometimes people just make mistakes) and outline how to do so persuasively. Though dense and intellectually rigorous, the book’s brisk pace and jocular tone provide relief. The authors do a great job of equipping readers to better make sense of the vast amounts of data at their fingertips. Agent: Max Brockman, Brockman, Inc.

July 17, 2020

In recent years, data has been driving various political and societal decisions, and this work by Bergstrom (biology) and West (iSchool, both Univ. of Washington, Seattle) is much-needed for the times, as the authors effectively demonstrate how facts, statistics, and data can be misconstrued and, even far worse, manipulated. People often assume that statistics are unassailable, but the authors prove that bias is ever present and succeed in presenting a well-rounded review on topics such as Brandolini's law and it impacts modern politics. Readers don't need to have a background in statistical analysis to understand the basic tenets of data manipulation--Bergstrom and West show how biases are often woven into data, knowingly and unknowingly, and can be found within the research itself and/or the types of data collected. They also warn against statistical finality because science is continuously evolving. Other inherent dangers include the forgery of data targets and the lack of clarity within charts and graphs. VERDICT Highly recommended for anyone wishing to navigate successfully the daily deluge of information we are encountering more and more.--Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2020
With the mounds of infotainment being shared on social media and in the news, it's increasingly difficult to convince others that some of it is, indeed, bullshit. Bergstrom and West's portable guide is for readers who are interested in teasing out truth, evaluating their own confirmation biases, and learning strategies to help persuade others to take another look at scientific evidence that may be presented in misleading and occasionally malicious ways. Starting with the idea that most laypeople are not well versed enough in STEM methodology to quickly determine if that chart their friends are sharing on Facebook is giving them a false view of a given situation, Bergstrom and West break down illuminating examples of bullshit in the wild. Encouragingly, the authors remind readers that they don't need to be a statistics expert to refute a misleading headline; it's often enough to apply simple skepticism in order to evaluate the information for truth. Libraries who are tackling election year information literacy will find Calling Bullshit a useful tool to encourage thoughtful, rational conversations.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)