Truth Addict

How to Ask Questions, Test Ideas, and Get Answers in a Data-Driven World
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-0-520-41659-8
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 344 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 520 g

Foreword by Charles Wheelan, author of New York Times bestseller Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the DataWhat makes some evidence strong, some evidence weak, and some evidence total nonsense? Truth Addict is your guide to answers.

Individuals, policymakers, and businesses across the globe want to make decisions based on evidence. But not all evidence is created equal.

Truth Addict is the layperson's guide to data, truth, and the gap between them. Whether it's collected through laboratory experiments or public surveys, market research or archival records, data has a story to tell us—but only if we can read it. Drawing on engaging examples, John V. Kane details the logic of gathering and analyzing data as a means of getting us closer to the truth, even if the truth hurts.

Developing research questions. Defining variables. Choosing metrics. Testing hypotheses. Quantifying relationships. Ruling out chance. Considering alternative explanations. Knowing not just that "correlation does not equal causation," but also how to tell the difference. These are key steps along Kane's "Road to Evidence," a journey that begins with curiosity and ends at objective knowledge. You don't have to be a math whiz to study our social world—Truth Addict provides every reader tools to uncover the reality within the numbers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kane, John Victor

Weitere Mitwirkende

Wheelan, Charles

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Empirische Sozialforschung, Statistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophische Logik, Argumentationstheorie
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Forschung und Information Forschungsmethodik, Wissenschaftliche Ausstattung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsForeword by Charles WheelanIntroductionLevel 1: A Problem of MotivationChapter 1: What Are We Talking About?Chapter 2: Motivated to Believe (What We Want to Be True)Chapter 3: Aiming for Accuracy (Even When the Truth Hurts)Level 2: It All Begins with a QuestionChapter 4: Asking the Right QuestionsChapter 5: Research Questions Have Two Variables We Care AboutChapter 6: First Formulate, Then FixateLevel 3: Learning the Lingo, Loving the LogicChapter 7: Homing In On a HypothesisChapter 8: The Mechanism MattersChapter 9: Design IntelligentlyChapter 10: Out of the Sky and into the SpreadsheetChapter 11: Comparison, the Giver of KnowledgeLevel 4: Finding Meaning in the FindingsChapter 12: The Numbers We Really Care AboutChapter 13: Go FiguresChapter 14: Wrestling with RandomnessChapter 15: Sizing Up the ResultsLevel 5: Data, Data Everywhere, Now Let Us Stop to ThinkChapter 16: Separating the Three C's—Coincidence, Correlation, and CausationChapter 17: Reading Results in Reverse, and the Evil Powers of Hidden ConfoundersChapter 18: What Should We Conclude? (Flaws, Limitations, and Implications)Chapter 19: The Slow, Careful Crawl Toward TruthConclusion: The Truth Is Out There (Now Go and Find It)NotesReferencesIndex

Über Autor(innen)

John V. Kane is Associate Professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, where he teaches courses on research methods, applied statistics, and public opinion. He has written for top peer-reviewed journals, as well as for The New York Times, National Public Radio, and elsewhere.