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Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics
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Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics
Using Microsoft Excel

Sixth Edition
Available with:
Learning platform
February 2026 | 368 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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Salkind and Frey's Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics: Using Microsoft Excel presents an often intimidating and difficult subject in a way that is clear, informative, and personable. With improved navigation and a new full color format, the Sixth Edition notably features Microsoft Excel 2025 for use in statistical analysis, including updated graphics and coverage of how to use functions and formulas. A new appendix features coverage of Copilot, Microsoft's AI chatbot, to assist students in conducting statistical analyses. Tried and true features, such as review questions, end-of-chapter exercises, updated illustrations, and the "Path to Wisdom and Knowledge" flowcharts, help students learn to select the appropriate statistical test in each of the core chapters. With Excel incorporated throughout, 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.

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This text is offered in Sage Vantage, an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality Sage textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support. Highlights include:

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  • NEW! An AI Literacy module prepares students to engage confidently with today’s AI tools through an interactive, outcomes-focused experience—with minimal instructor lift and no course redesign required. Available exclusively in Sage Vantage and written by professors who teach and publish about AI, the AI Information Literacy, Academic Integrity, and Responsible AI Use integrates video, data-driven examples, applied activities, Knowledge Checks, and built-in assessments that help instructors track student understanding. Focused on strengthening critical thinking, the module teaches students how to evaluate AI outputs for accuracy and bias while developing responsible prompting strategies that support academic success without compromising students’ intellectual growth.

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Preface
 
And Now, About the Sixth Edition. . .
 
Sage Vantage Features
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Part I: Yippee! I’m in Statistics
 
Chapter 1: Statistics or Sadistics? It’s Up to You
Why Statistics?

 
Descriptive Statistics and Averages

 
Computing the Mean

 
Computing the Median

 
Computing the Mode

 
What Am I Doing in a Statistics Class?

 
Ten Ways to Use This Book (and Learn Statistics at the Same Time!)

 
About the Book’s Features

 
Key to Difficulty Icons

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 2: What Do Your Data Look Like? Summarizing and Picturing Distributions
How Much Information Is in Your Variable?

 
Vive la Différence! Understanding Variability

 
All You Need to Know About Using the Amazing Data Analysis Tools

 
Computing Every Conceivable Descriptive Statistic

 
Shaping Things Up

 
Using the Amazing Data Analysis Tools to Create a Histogram

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 3: Computing Correlation Coefficients: Ice Cream and Crime
How’s Your Relationship?

 
Computing a Pearson Correlation Coefficient

 
What’s It All Mean?

 
Ice Cream Causes Crime (Association vs. Causation)

 
And Now . . . Using Excel’s CORREL Function

 
Creating a Scatterplot

 
Other Cool Correlations

 
Parting Ways: A Bit About Partial Correlations

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 4: Reliability and Validity: Tell the Truth, Precisely the Truth
Reliability: Getting It Right the First Time

 
Different Types of Reliability

 
Test–Retest Reliability: Time and Time Again

 
Internal Consistency Reliability: To One’s Own Self Be True

 
Interrater Reliability: Agreeing Not to Disagree

 
How Big Is Big? Interpreting Reliability Coefficients

 
Validity: What’s the Meaning of Life!?

 
Validity and Reliability: Really Close Cousins

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Part II: Taking Chances for Fun and Profit
 
Chapter 5: The Normal Curve: It’s Shaped Like a Bell and It’s Everywhere!
Distributions and Probabilities

 
Area Codes: Areas Under the Normal Curve

 
The Amazing Super-Informative z Score

 
Using Excel to Compute z Scores

 
Fat and Skinny Frequency Distributions

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 6: Hypotheticals and You: Making Guesses
Samples and Populations

 
The Null Hypothesis

 
The Research Hypothesis

 
A Closer Look at Our Two Favorite Hypotheses

 
What Makes a Good Research Hypothesis?

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 7: Significance: Not Everything That Can Be Counted Counts
The Concept of Significance

 
If Only We Were Perfect

 
Type I or Type II: Errors in Inferential Statistics

 
Significance Versus Meaningfulness

 
An Introduction to Inferential Statistics

 
An Introduction to Tests of Significance

 
Be Even More Confident

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Part III: Significantly Different: Using Inferential Statistics
 
Chapter 8: Single Samples: One Group All Alone
Introduction to the Single-Sample z Test

 
Computing the z Test Statistic

 
Using Excel to Perform a t Test

 
Special Effects: Do They Matter?

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 9: t(ea) for Two: Comparing Two Means
The Classic Group Comparison: Independent t Test

 
The Effect Size for a Two-Group Comparison

 
Using Excel to Perform an Independent t Test

 
One Group Compared to Itself: Paired-Samples t Test

 
Using Excel to Perform a Paired-Samples t Test

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 10: More Than Two Groups? Analysis of Variance to the Rescue
Different Flavors of Analysis of Variance

 
Computing the F Test Statistic

 
Using Excel for One-Way Analysis of Variance

 
The Effect Size for One-Way ANOVA

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 11: Two (or More) ANOVAs in One: Factorial Analysis of Variance
Factorial Analysis of Variance

 
A New Flavor of ANOVA

 
The Main Event: Main Effects in Factorial ANOVA

 
Even More Interesting: Interaction Effects

 
Using Excel to Conduct a Factorial Analysis of Variance

 
Computing the Effect Size for Factorial ANOVA

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 12: Correlation Coefficients and Regression: Can You Relate?
Remember the Correlation Coefficient?

 
Computing the Test Statistic

 
Linear Regression

 
Drawing the World’s Best Line (for Your Data)

 
How Good Is Your Prediction?

 
Using Excel to Compute the Regression Line

 
Multiple Regression: The More Predictors the Better? Maybe

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Part IV: More Statistics! More Tools! More Fun!
 
Chapter 13: Chi-Square and Some Other Nonparametric Tests: What to Do When You’re Not Normal
Introduction to Nonparametric Statistics

 
Introduction to the Goodness-of-Fit (One-Sample) Chi-Square

 
Computing the Goodness-of-Fit Chi-Square Test Statistic

 
Introduction to the Chi-Square Test of Independence

 
Using Excel to Perform Chi-Square Tests

 
Other Nonparametric Tests You Should Know About

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 14: Some Other (Important) Statistical Stuff You Should Know About
Sophisticated Group Comparisons

 
Sophisticated Correlational Analyses

 
It’s Not About What Data Are Mine, It’s About What Data Are Mined

 
Using Chatbots for Statistical Analyses

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
 
Appendices: Information Never Ends!
 
Appendix A: Excel-erate Your Learning
 
Appendix B: Tables
 
Appendix C: Data Sets
 
Appendix D: Answers to Practice Questions
 
Appendix E: Math—Just the Basics
 
Appendix F: The 10 Commandments of Data Collection
 
Appendix G: Working With Copilot
 
Appendix H: The Reward—The Brownie Recipe
 
Glossary
 
Index
Key features
NEW TO THIS EDITION:
  • The new edition is available in Sage Vantage, an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality Sage textbook content with assignable multimedia activities, including author-created videos, and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support.
    • NEW! An AI Literacy module prepares students to engage confidently with today’s AI tools through an interactive, outcomes-focused experience—with minimal instructor lift and no course redesign required. Available exclusively in Sage Vantage and written by professors who teach and publish about AI, the AI Information Literacy, Academic Integrity, and Responsible AI Use module integrates video, data driven examples, applied activities, Knowledge Checks, and built-in assessments that help instructors track student understanding. Focused on strengthening critical thinking, the module teaches students how to evaluate AI outputs for accuracy and bias while developing responsible prompting strategies that support academic success without compromising students’ intellectual growth.
    • Flashcards and note-taking tools help students better prepare for class.
    • NEW! Audiobook Player allows students to listen to text content, boosting comprehension and retention. It offers flexible, on-the-go access, engaging both reluctant readers and auditory learners, improving the overall reading experience.
    • The Offline Reading option in the Student Dashboard offers greater accessibility to Vantage’s reading content, regardless of where students are or how strong their internet connection may be.
    • NEW! Practice Problems, low-stakes, auto-graded assessments designed to reinforce key statistical skills through active application, help students build concept mastery while easily monitoring their progress. No extra grading required—results sync automatically to the Vantage gradebook and your LMS.
    • NEW! Numeric Input lets students enter exact numerical answers in all assessment types—ideal for statistics problems that require precise values and calculations.
    • All tables and figures in both the assessments and the eBook are now downloadable.
  • A new appendix on how to use Copilot, Microsoft’s AI chatbot to assist students in conducting statistical analyses.
  • Easier navigation with reorganized, renumbered, and renamed chapters and appendices.
  • Updated instructive end-of-chapter exercises, developed for Microsoft Excel 2025 (though the files will work with earlier versions of Excel as well).
  • New activities and scorable questions are in each chapter, spanning all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.
  • Updated examples, graphics, and visuals enhance comprehension and learning.
  • Dozens of new key terms and definitions are included in each chapter, and the comprehensive Glossary includes new entries and improved, clarified definitions.
KEY FEATURES:
  • Practical, easy-to-understand coverage of most important topics needed to succeed in the course, future jobs, and everyday life is presented in a warm, down-to-earth manner infused with humor and respect for the students.
  • Complete coverage of the Excel Data Analysis tools shows readers how they can be used for descriptive statistics, graphical representation of data, correlation, regression, and more.
  • Discussions of important topics, such as the normal curve, inference, and the central limit theorem—and their importance—help students master key concepts and skills.
  • Instructions on using Excel formulas to compute reliability estimates, Chi-square values, and other non-parametric procedures prepare students to use the software when analyzing their own work.
  • A chapter-ending Real World Stats feature shows readers how statistics is applied in the everyday world.
  • Answers to exercises at the back of the book (with page references) make it easy for students to check their analyses and then quickly refer to the specific information they need to review.
  • Appendix E presents basic math instruction and practice exercises for those who need to brush up on their math skills.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Ch1-2

Vantage Reference: 
Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics - Vantage Learning Platform

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