Misrepresentation

Causality

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Original study

Moore, Steven C., et al. “Association of leisure-time physical activity with risk of 26 types of cancer in 1.44 million adults.” JAMA internal medicine 176.6 (2016): 816-825.

  • Volunteers were asked about their physical activity level over the preceding year.
  • Half exercised less than about 150 minutes per week, half exercised more.
  • Compared to the bottom 10% of exercisers, the top 10% had lower rates of esophageal, liver, lung, endometrial, colon, and breast cancer.
  • Researchers found no association between exercising and 13 other cancers (e.g. pancreatic, ovarian, and brain).

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Axes and scale

What is the difference between these two pictures? Which presents a better way to represent these data?

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What is wrong with this picture? How would you correct it?

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What is wrong with this picture? How would you correct it?

Graph detective

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Another try, still some work to do…

Maps and areas

Do you recognize this map? What does it show?

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Visualizing uncertainty

On December 19, 2014, the front page of Spanish national newspaper El País read “Catalan public opinion swings toward ‘no’ for independence, says survey”.

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Further reading

How Charts Lie
Getting Smarter about Visual Information

by Alberto Cairo

Calling Bullshit
The Art of Skepticism in a
Data-Driven World

by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West

Further Watching