Figures Don’t Lie, Liars Figure
This statement is attributed to Samuel Clemons (Mark Twain)
over 150 years ago.
With our ability to analyze and manipulate data faster than
ever before and the ever-increasing requirement for the quick
answer, we must always be on guard to provide unbiased information
from the data.
Some people subconsciously tend to depict data in the most
favorable light. Others intentionally try to deceive the reader
by selective data use, extrapolation from the data, using
creative graphics, or by making faulty assumptions.
Following are just a few examples of how the data may be
presented to cloud the actual result:
Consider the news headline quoting a study, “At lunchtime,
men network, women run errands.” In reality, researchers
at the University of California - Irvine, found that 51 percent
of women said they shopped or ran errands at lunch. Only 39
percent of men claimed to do the same. No question asked men
what they were doing instead of errands. The writer used a
creative extrapolation of the data and a false assumption
of activity to derive the headline.
A creative graphics example may be illustrated by a department
preparing a presentation to provide production numbers for
the thousands of widgets produced over the last ten years.
If they wish to impress the boss, use the chart with the truncated
scale on the left. A closer look at the data reveals that
production has actually increased by less than one percent
per year. A more honest representation is shown in the figure
on the right. (The use of truncated scales is discussed in
“How To Lie With Statistics” by Darrell Huff,
1954.)
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