This course seeks to help students become more informed consumers of the statistics that bombard us daily, from claims about drugs’ effectiveness to predictions about election outcomes. When should we trust (or be skeptical) of claims about public opinion or voter intentions? How can we know what a population is like when observing only a few members of it? How are measures of unemployment, inflation and similar public statistics actually measured? And what are some hidden characteristics of such simple statistics as mean, median, and percentage change? If fake news wasn’t bad enough, this course examines the cases in which even the truth can be misleading.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
Membership & Course Fees
Membership in Celebration Lifelong Learning, Inc. costs $50 per term, for fall or spring. Membership may be purchased without registering for any courses and is non-transferable. Membership benefits include eligibility to register for courses, free admission to the Lecture Series, and free participation in CLL, Inc.'s five monthly clubs. Course fees are $25; some courses require an additional materials fee.
Faculty
Robert Pearson
Dr. Pearson taught applied statistics at the University of Pennsylvania, authored a textbook on the topic (Statistical Persuasion), and has written numerous articles on the use and misuses of federal statistics. He worked at the National Opinion Research Center at…
See Robert Pearson’s full profile
Session #1
September 9, September 16 & September 23, 2026
Wednesdays, 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
Open
11 of 20 seats left