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Truth Addict

How to Ask Questions, Test Ideas, and Get Answers in a Data-Driven World
by John Victor Kane (Author), Charles Wheelan (Foreword by)
Hardcover Paperback eBook
Price: $95.00
Publication Date: Aug 2026
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 344
ISBN: 9780520416581
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 22 b/w illustrations, 17 tables
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About the Book

What makes some evidence strong, some evidence weak, and some evidence total nonsense? Truth Addict is your guide to answers.

Individuals, policymakers, and businesses across the globe want to make decisions based on evidence. But not all evidence is created equal.

Truth Addict is the layperson's guide to data, truth, and the gap between them. Whether it's collected through laboratory experiments or public surveys, market research or archival records, data has a story to tell us—but only if we can read it. Drawing on engaging examples, John V. Kane details the logic of gathering and analyzing data as a means of getting us closer to the truth, even if the truth hurts.

Developing research questions. Defining variables. Choosing metrics. Testing hypotheses. Quantifying relationships. Ruling out chance. Considering alternative explanations. Knowing not just that "correlation does not equal causation," but also how to tell the difference. These are key steps along Kane's "Road to Evidence," a journey that begins with curiosity and ends at objective knowledge. You don’t have to be a math whiz to study our social world—Truth Addict provides every reader tools to uncover the reality within the numbers.

About the Author

John V. Kane is Associate Professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, where he teaches research methods and applied statistics. His scholarship and writing appear in top peer-reviewed journals, as well as The New York Times, National Public Radio, and elsewhere.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Charles Wheelan

Introduction

Level 1: A Problem of Motivation

Chapter 1: What Are We Talking About?

Chapter 2: Motivated to Believe (What We Want to Be True)

Chapter 3: Aiming for Accuracy (Even When the Truth Hurts)

Level 2: It All Begins with a Question

Chapter 4: Asking the Right Questions

Chapter 5: Research Questions Have Two Variables We Care About

Chapter 6: First Formulate, Then Fixate

Level 3: Learning the Lingo, Loving the Logic

Chapter 7: Homing In On a Hypothesis

Chapter 8: The Mechanism Matters

Chapter 9: Design Intelligently

Chapter 10: Out of the Sky and into the Spreadsheet

Chapter 11: Comparison, the Giver of Knowledge

Level 4: Finding Meaning in the Findings

Chapter 12: The Numbers We Really Care About

Chapter 13: Go Figures

Chapter 14: Wrestling with Randomness

Chapter 15: Sizing Up the Results

Level 5: Data, Data Everywhere, Now Let Us Stop to Think

Chapter 16: Separating the Three C's—Coincidence, Correlation, and Causation

Chapter 17: Reading Results in Reverse, and the Evil Powers of Hidden Confounders

Chapter 18: What Should We Conclude? (Flaws, Limitations, and Implications)

Chapter 19: The Slow, Careful Crawl Toward Truth

Conclusion: The Truth Is Out There (Now Go and Find It)

Notes

References

Index

Reviews

"Disarmingly charming, succinct, and clear. Truth Addict shows readers how to be intelligent producers and consumers of data within a world in which real intelligence is more urgently needed than ever."—Kristin Luker, Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt Professor of Law (Emerita) and Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley 

"This is a transformational book. It offers a unique and remarkably clever perspective on how to answer big social, political, and economic questions. Its insights will shape how any reader—from the uninitiated student to the seasoned researcher—views the world. Everyone should read it."—James N. Druckman, Martin Brewer Anderson Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester 

"In this fast-paced world, we are inundated with headlines and claims, and it's all too easy to take them at face value rather than call them into question. And yet, to be informed and active participants, questioning is exactly what we must do. Truth Addict is a sharp, savvy guide to how we can do just that, for anyone determined to make critical, principled, and thoughtful sense of our world instead of merely getting swept along by it."—Gregory R. Hancock and Patrick J. Curran, cohosts of the podcast Quantitude 

"This book is a powerful antidote to simplistic thinking about truth and lies. John V. Kane makes a compelling case that real wisdom requires a different way of thinking, and he provides the tools to reach smarter conclusions."—Jay Van Bavel, Professor of Psychology, New York University 

“The statistical investigation of causal structure is not tedious even for a moment in Kane's hands. His enthusiasm, humor, and delight in deep and clear explanation imbue Truth Addict with an irresistibly light-hearted seriousness.”—Michael Strevens, author of The Knowledge Machine and Professor of Philosophy, New York University

"The process of scientific discovery is typically presented in ways that make it seem boring, tedious, and technical. But, at least sometimes, it is a delightful adventure. Kane's book uniquely describes the joyful experience of discovering the truth—of moving from asking questions to formulating a hypothesis to correctly interpreting the evidence. Discovering the truth can be fun, and Kane shows us how."—Paul Kellstedt, Professor of Political Science, Texas A&M University

"Highly accessible and delightfully charming. Truth Addict is an engaging primer on social science and how it's done right. Kane guides the reader gently down the ‘Road to Evidence,’ clearly explaining complex ideas—everything from causal inference and scientific realism to p-values and collider bias—without jargon. Along the way, he points to scientific habits of mind essential for researchers, and he places much-needed caution signs for avoiding the cognitive fallacies that can lead us astray. Written with warmth and good-natured humor, this is both a pleasurable and informative read."—Smriti Verma and Daniël Lakens, cohosts of the podcast Nullius in Verba