Bergstrom and West open by identifying a specific vulnerability in how people process quantitative claims: numbers and statistics carry an unearned appearance of objectivity that makes misleading statistical claims easier to smuggle past skeptical readers than misleading verbal claims would be.

Why numbers get this special treatment:

• Quantification implies rigor and precision, even when the underlying methodology is flawed or the numbers are simply fabricated
• Readers often apply less critical scrutiny to a claim once it's expressed numerically than they would to an equivalent verbal claim
• This vulnerability is specifically exploitable by anyone motivated to present a misleading case using selectively chosen or poorly-sourced statistics

This opening establishes the book's central concern: building genuine skepticism toward quantitative claims, matching the skepticism most educated readers already apply to purely verbal argument.