My purpose in writing this book is to provide the evidence needed to spark reform of state No Fault Divorce laws which always grant a divorce requested by one spouse. The current law in 49 states allows one spouse to file for a divorce on grounds of "irreconcilable differences,” and obtain the divorce in every case. What’s wrong with that? In 80% of the cases their spouses believe the marriage is recon-cilable. The uniform granting of every divorce violates Constitutional guarantees of “due process of law.” How can there be due process if the spouse who wants to save the marriage always loses? That is un-just as well as unconstitutional. If children are involved, it is tragic. Children need to be brought up by their own married mother and father. The best parents are married parents. “About 28% of our nation’s children – more than 20 million kids – will go to bed tonight without their father in the home. These children are much more likely to fail in school, to become pregnant as teenagers and to get in trouble with the law,” asserts Professor Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia. Therefore, this book proposes that if there is no major fault alleged, such as adultery or physical abuse, in cases of couples who have children – that no divorce would be granted unless both the mother and father agree. This would replace No Fault Divorce with Mutual Consent Divorce in cases involving children. Key American religious and legal leaders predict this single step could cut divorce rates in half in any state which passed the reform. Read more

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERMost Anticipated in:AARP | Associated Press | Time Magazine | Oprah Daily | Chicago Tribune | Literary Hub | Publishers Weekly | Publishers LunchTwenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.   Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously. Read more

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From the bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia: discover Malcolm Gladwell's breakthrough debut and explore the science behind viral trends in business, marketing, and human behavior. The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.“A wonderful page-turner about a fascinating idea that should affect the way every thinking person looks at the world.” —Michael Lewis Read more

The most influential book of the past seventy-five years: a groundbreaking exploration of everything we know about what we don’t know, now with a new section called “On Robustness and Fragility.”A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don’t know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the “impossible.” For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. In this revelatory book, Taleb will change the way you look at the world, and this second edition features a new philosophical and empirical essay, “On Robustness and Fragility,” which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world.Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a landmark book—itself a black swan. Read more

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The groundbreaking exploration of probability and uncertainty that explains how to make better predictions in a world drowning in data, from the nation’s foremost political forecaster—updated with insights into the pandemic, journalism today, and pollingOne of The Wall Street Journal’s Ten Best Works of Nonfiction of the Year“Could turn out to be one of the more momentous books of the decade.”—The New York Times Book ReviewMost predictions fail, often at great cost to society, because experts and laypeople mistake more confident predictions for more accurate ones. But overconfidence is often the reason for failure. If our appreciation of uncertainty improves, our predictions can get better too. This is the “prediction paradox”: The more humility we have about our ability to make predictions, the more successful we can be in planning for the future.Drawing on his own groundbreaking work in sports and politics, Nate Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how to seek truth from data. In The Signal and the Noise, Silver visits innovative forecasters in a range of areas, from hurricanes to baseball to global pandemics, from the poker table to the stock market, from Capitol Hill to the NBA. He discovers that what the most accurate ones have in common is a superior command of probability—as well as a healthy dose of humility.With everything from the global economy to the fight against disease hanging on the quality of our predictions, Nate Silver’s insights are an essential read. Read more

If you want to outsmart a crook, learn his tricks—Darrell Huff explains exactly how in the classic How to Lie with Statistics.From distorted graphs and biased samples to misleading averages, there are countless statistical dodges that lend cover to anyone with an ax to grind or a product to sell. With abundant examples and illustrations, Darrell Huff’s lively and engaging primer clarifies the basic principles of statistics and explains how they’re used to present information in honest and not-so-honest ways. Now even more indispensable in our data-driven world than it was when first published, How to Lie with Statistics is the book that generations of readers have relied on to keep from being fooled. Read more

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERMost Anticipated in:AARP | Associated Press | Time Magazine | Oprah Daily | Chicago Tribune | Literary Hub | Publishers Weekly | Publishers LunchTwenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.   Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously. Read more

Adam Grant’s “8 New Idea Books to Start Spring”Next Big Idea Club's Must-Read Books for May 2024"A wonderful litany of the myriad ways in which we can be deceived, and deceive ourselves."—The Guardian"Entertaining, thorough and full of current examples. . . . It’s excellent." —The Wall Street JournalHow our biases cause us to fall for misinformation—and how to combat it. Our lives are minefields of misinformation. It ripples through our social media feeds, our daily headlines, and the pronouncements of politicians, executives, and authors. Stories, statistics, and studies are everywhere, allowing people to find evidence to support whatever position they want. Many of these sources are flawed, yet by playing on our emotions and preying on our biases, they can gain widespread acceptance, warp our views, and distort our decisions.   In this eye-opening book, renowned economist Alex Edmans teaches us how to separate fact from fiction. Using colorful examples—from a wellness guru’s tragic but fabricated backstory to the blunders that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster to the diet that ensnared millions yet hastened its founder’s death—Edmans highlights the biases that cause us to mistake statements for facts, facts for data, data for evidence, and evidence for proof.   Armed with the knowledge of what to guard against, he then provides a practical guide to combat this tide of misinformation. Going beyond simply checking the facts and explaining individual statistics, Edmans explores the relationships between statistics—the science of cause and effect—ultimately training us to think smarter, sharper, and more critically. May Contain Lies is an essential read for anyone who wants to make better sense of the world and better decisions. Read more

Now in its Seventh Edition, Neil J. Salkind’s bestselling Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics with new co-author Bruce B. Frey teaches an often intimidating subject with a humorous, personable, and informative approach that reduces statistics anxiety. With instruction in SPSS®, the authors guide students through basic and advanced statistical procedures, from correlation and graph creation to analysis of variance, regression, non-parametric tests, and more.  The Seventh Edition includes new real-world examples, additional coverage on multiple regression and power and effect size, and a robust interactive eBook with video tutorials and animations of key concepts. In the end, students who (think they) hate statistics will understand how to explain the results of many statistical analyses and won’t be intimidated by basic statistical tasks.  A Complete Teaching & Learning Package accompanies the Seventh Edition! Interactive eBook: Save when bundled with the Seventh Edition. Includes access to SAGE Premium Video, multimedia tools, and much more Use bundle ISBN: 978-1-5443-9339-1. SAGE Premium Video includes animated Core Concepts in Stats Videos, Lightboard Lecture Videos from Bruce B. Frey, and tutorial videos for end-of-chapter of SPSS problems. Only available in the Interactive eBook.    SAGE edge: FREE online resources for students that make learning easier.  SAGE coursepacks: FREE! Easily import our quality instructor and student resource content into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Study Guides: only $5 when bundled with Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics, 7e. To order:Study Guide and Interactive eBook bundle (ISBN 978-1-5443-9752-8)Study Guide for Psychology and Interactive eBook bundle (ISBN 978-1-5443-9753-5)Study Guide for Education and Interactive eBook bundle  (ISBN 978-1-5443-9754-2)Study Guide for Health & Nursing and Interactive eBook bundle (ISBN 978-1-5443-9755-9) Read more

SPSS Made Easy provides readers with a step-by-step guide to running a variety of statistical analyses on SPSS. With hundreds of images illustrating how to set up data files, run tests, and where to focus when interpreting the results, the book is intended to provide the reader with confidence throughout. It also describes when to use different tests, how to check assumptions, and how to interpret and report results. The book’s 20 chapters cover the following:Questionnaire Processing (e.g., identifying missing data, reverse coding, internal reliability)Independent T-TestsMann–Whitney U TestsPaired T-TestsWilcoxon Signed-Rank TestsOne-Way Independent ANOVAsKruskal–Wallis TestsOne-Way Repeated Measures ANOVAsFriedman TestsTwo-Way Independent ANOVAsTwo-Way Mixed ANOVAsOne-Way Independent ANCOVAsOne-Way Independent MANOVAsPearson CorrelationSpearman CorrelationSimple Linear RegressionMultiple Linear RegressionBinary Logistic RegressionChi-Square Tests of IndependenceChi-Square Goodness of Fit TestsThe book provides a link to a website where the reader can download a spreadsheet containing the data used in the examples. Additionally, the book indicates how the reader can obtain SPSS data files for all of the analyses covered. The spreadsheet and data files are completely free. Read more

How statistical data is used, misused, and abused every day to fool us: “A very entertaining book about a very serious problem.” —Robert J. Shiller, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of Irrational ExuberanceDid you know that baseball players whose names begin with “D” are more likely to die young? That Asian Americans are most susceptible to heart attacks on the fourth day of the month? That drinking a full pot of coffee every morning adds years to your life, but one cup a day increases your pancreatic cancer risk? These “facts” have been argued with a straight face by credentialed researchers and backed up with reams of data and convincing statistics. As Nobel Prize–winning economist Ronald Coase cynically observed, “If you torture data long enough, it will confess.” Lying with statistics is a time-honored con. In Standard Deviations, economics professor Gary Smith walks us through the various tricks and traps that people use to back up their own crackpot theories. Sometimes, the unscrupulous deliberately try to mislead us. Other times, the well-intentioned are blissfully unaware of the mischief they are committing. Today, data is so plentiful that researchers spend precious little time distinguishing between good, meaningful indicators and total rubbish. Not only do others use data to fool us, we fool ourselves. Drawing on breakthrough research in behavioral economics and using clear examples, Standard Deviations demystifies the science behind statistics and makes it easy to spot the fraud all around us.“An entertaining primer . . . packed with figures, tables, graphs and ludicrous examples from people who know better (academics, scientists) and those who don’t (political candidates, advertisers).” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Read more

The updated Second Edition of Herschel Knapp’s friendly and practical introduction to statistics shows students how to properly select, process, and interpret statistics without heavy emphasis on theory, formula derivations, or abstract mathematical concepts. Each chapter is structured to answer questions that students most want answered: What statistical test should I use for this situation? How do I set up the data? How do I run the test? How do I interpret and document the results? Online tutorial videos, examples, screenshots, and intuitive illustrations help students "get the story" from their data as they learn by doing, completing practice exercises at the end of each chapter using prepared downloadable data sets. Read more

A Beginner’s Guide to Structural Equation Modeling, fifth edition, has been redesigned with consideration of a true beginner in structural equation modeling (SEM) in mind. The book covers introductory through intermediate topics in SEM in more detail than in any previous edition.All of the chapters that introduce models in SEM have been expanded to include easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidelines that readers can use when conducting their own SEM analyses. These chapters also include examples of tables to include in results sections that readers may use as templates when writing up the findings from their SEM analyses. The models that are illustrated in the text will allow SEM beginners to conduct, interpret, and write up analyses for observed variable path models to full structural models, up to testing higher order models as well as multiple group modeling techniques. Updated information about methodological research in relevant areas will help students and researchers be more informed readers of SEM research. The checklist of SEM considerations when conducting and reporting SEM analyses is a collective set of requirements that will help improve the rigor of SEM analyses.This book is intended for true beginners in SEM and is designed for introductory graduate courses in SEM taught in psychology, education, business, and the social and healthcare sciences. This book also appeals to researchers and faculty in various disciplines. Prerequisites include correlation and regression methods. Read more

The most popularly read, adapted, anthologized, and incorporated primer on sociology ever written for modern readers Acclaimed scholar and sociologist Peter L. Berger lays the groundwork for a clear understanding of sociology in his straightforward introduction to the field, much loved by students, professors, and general readers. Berger aligns sociology in the humanist tradition—revealing its relationship to the humanities and philosophy—and establishes its importance in thinking critically about the modern world. Throughout, Berger presents the contributions of some of the most important sociologists of the time, including Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, Vilfredo Pareto, and Thorstein Veblen. Read more

An Introduction to Data Science is an easy-to-read, gentle introduction for advanced undergraduate, certificate, and graduate students coming from a wide range of backgrounds into the world of data science. After introducing the basic concepts of data science, the book builds on these foundations to explain data science techniques using the R programming language and RStudio® from the ground up. Short chapters allow instructors to group concepts together for a semester course and provide students with manageable amounts of information for each concept. By taking students systematically through the R programming environment, the book takes the fear out of data science and familiarizes students with the environment so they can be successful when performing advanced functions.  The authors cover statistics from a conceptual standpoint, focusing on how to use and interpret statistics, rather than the math behind the statistics. This text then demonstrates how to use data effectively and efficiently to construct models, predict outcomes, visualize data, and make decisions. Accompanying digital resources provide code and datasets for instructors and learners to perform a wide range of data science tasks.   Read more

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“[A] delightful addition to the stuff-you-think-you-know-that’s-wrong genre, á la Freakonomics, Outliers, and The Black Swan.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)In Israel, pilot trainees who were praised for doing well subsequently performed worse, while trainees who were yelled at for doing poorly performed better. Evidence shows that highly intelligent women tend to marry men who are less intelligent. Students who get the highest scores in third grade generally get lower scores in fourth grade. And yet, it’s wrong to conclude that screaming is an effective tool, that women choose men whose intelligence doesn’t intimidate them, or that schools are failing third graders. In fact, there’s one reason for each of these empirical facts—a statistical concept called “regression to the mean.”Regression to the mean seeks to explain, with statistics, the role of luck in our day-to-day lives. An insufficient appreciation of luck and chance can wreak all kinds of mischief in sports, education, medicine, business, politics, and more. It can make us see illness when we’re not sick and see cures when treatments are worthless. Perfectly natural random variation can lead us to attach meaning to the meaningless.Freakonomics showed how economic calculations can explain seemingly counterintuitive decision-making. Thinking, Fast and Slow identified a host of small cognitive errors that can lead to mistakes and irrational thought. Now, statistician and author of Standard Deviations Gary Smith shows—in clear, witty prose—how a statistical understanding of luck can change the way we see just about every aspect of our lives . . . and help us learn to rely less on random chance, and more on truth. Read more

Modern statistics is very different from the dry and dusty discipline of the popular imagination. In its place is an exciting subject which uses deep theory and powerful software tools to shed light and enable understanding. And it sheds this light on all aspects of our lives, enabling astronomers to explore the origins of the universe, archaeologists to investigate ancient civilisations, governments to understand how to benefit and improve society, and businesses to learn how best to provide goods and services. Aimed at readers with no prior mathematical knowledge, this Very Short Introduction explores and explains how statistics work, and how we can decipher them. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. Read more