Statistics don't lie. People who use them do.

Mark Liberman makes his latest run at the zombie that won't die: the significance of the changes in the difference between male and female happiness. Douthat, Dowd, Leavitt, Leonhardt and Huffington are not to be trusted on these numbers.

A general word of advice: if a newspaper article or opinion piece tries to use a study and its statistics to make an interesting point, don't believe it; investigate it.

Liberman does a nice job of accurately presenting the statistics in a manageable form.

I'll do my best to capture his point. This idea:


Is mostly BS.

But the best part of Liberman's post: the mouse-over text on the first graph.