As the party leaders prepare for their final election debate, Straight Statistics and Sense about Science today publish a guide for the perplexed.

Making Sense of Statistics provides a few simple rules for seeing through the spin and avoiding the pitfalls.
 
Written with the advice of professional statisticians and journalists and the collaboration of the Royal Statistical Society, Making Sense of Statistics is not a course in statistics but a short primer on how they are used, and misused, in the press and in public dialogue. Numbers, averages, statistical significance and issues such as regression to the mean are explained in simple language, for an intended audience of journalists, press officers, and people who find statistical arguments a turn-off because they don’t understand them.
 
                                       
 
Michael Blastland, author and originator of Radio 4’s More or Less programme, was one of the team responsible. He says: “Taking numbers for granted is naïve – you become a sucker for spin. But treating them all as so many lies, turning away in cynicism, is to give up on every political, economic or social argument you follow, every public cause you love or hate. The middle way is the only way: to learn how numbers work."
 
Simon Briscoe, Statistics Editor of the Financial Times, adds:  “The advent of widely available, good quality data is a new phenomenon. Its impact on the way we live will be just as great as the internet or mobile communications. If you don't "get it" and know how to use it, your quality of life and understanding of the world around you will suffer. Simple! And it is fun to have the insights into our world that numbers offer.”
 
Making Sense of Statistics is available as a free download here, and will also be produced as a printed document. It joins Sense about Science’s highly-regarded series of short guides on issues such as chemicals, radiation, and GM crops.