Calling Bullshit

Bullshit isn’t what it used to be. Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data.

“A modern classic . . . a straight-talking survival guide to the mean streets of a dying democracy and a global pandemic.”—Wired

Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it’s increasingly difficult to know what’s true. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art. We are fairly well equipped to spot the sort of old-school bullshit that is based in fancy rhetoric and weasel words, but most of us don’t feel qualified to challenge the avalanche of new-school bullshit presented in the language of math, science, or statistics. In Calling Bullshit, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data.

You don’t need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Bergstrom and West exuberantly unpack examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern bullshit.

We have always needed people who call bullshit when necessary, whether within a circle of friends, a community of scholars, or the citizenry of a nation. Now that bullshit has evolved, we need to relearn the art of skepticism.

卡尔·伯格斯特龙（Carl Bergstrom）

美国华盛顿大学生物学系教授。他研究流行病如何在人群中传播，以及信息如何大规模地在生物和社会系统中流动——从细胞内对基因表达的控制到社交媒体上错误信息的传播。他最为人所知的是跨界整合自然科学和社会科学思想的能力，特别是在信息研究领域造诣很深。2010年以来，他发表了多篇前瞻性的文章，涉及信息科学、计算机科学、控制论、进化生物学、信息论、科学哲学、物理学等方面。其中有很多都发表在《自然》《科学》《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

杰文·韦斯特（Jevin D.West）

美国华盛顿大学信息学院副教授、公众知情中心主任。