Going against convention 8. Ignoring the uncertainty of the collected data or numbers. Just like we saw with Fox News examples, the manipulation of the axes can completely change the way the information on a graph is perceived. Some misleading online posts are difficult to spot because they contain both good and bad medical advice. The scientists estimated that, of the articles on the top 10 list, the ones with very low credibility scores received 2.1 million shares, while the neutral articles received 2.6 million shares, and the most credible ones received 1.7 million shares. For example, the objective graph literacy scale is a test with 13 items. Our guide included some misleading examples and illustrations of data, several of which come from the Reddit thread for misleading visual statistics. By taking the following steps, we can protect ourselves and loved ones from harmful misinformation. Health misinformation has also led to harassment and violence against health workers, airline staff, and other frontline workers tasked with communicating evolving public health measures. To make sure the reliability is high, there are various techniques to perform the first of them being the control tests, which should have similar results when reproducing an experiment in similar conditions. Do numbers lie? A plot with two vertical axes is inherently more complicated to digest, especially in this case, because the two axes are not designed to show a relationship between two different attributes. For example, on a poll seeking tax opinions, lets look at the two potential questions: - Do you believe that you should be taxed so other citizens dont have to work? A controversial representation of this happened in 2014 when a graph depicting the number of murders committed using firearms in Florida from 1990 to 2010 was published in the context of the Stand Your Ground law, enacted in 2005 to give people the right to use deadly force for self-defense. And now have a look at the trend from 1900 to 2012: While the long-term data may appear to reflect a plateau, it clearly paints a picture of gradual warming. Example 8: Urban Planning. One of the most misleading, but rather common, tricks is to use relative risks when talking about the benefits of a treatment, for example to say that "Women taking tamoxifen had about 49% fewer diagnoses of breast cancer", while potential harms are given in absolute risks: "The annual rate of uterine cancer in the tamoxifen arm was 30 per 10,000 . Now that weve looked at examples and common cases of misuse of statistics, you might be wondering, how do I avoid all of this? 2 Steven Strogatzs Twitter comment to show a recreation of a plot showing the number of daily cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 in the population of Kansas. Columbia Journalism School professor Bill Grueskin even made a lesson to its students about the topic and used several misleading charts from the US news show as an example of what not to do when presenting data. (labels are clear, axes begin at 0, right chart type, etc) Is the research represented honestly and in an impartial manner? Annual Data 3. For example, one popular video recommended injecting herbs into the prostate to treat cancer, which is unproven and potentially dangerous. This graph makes the argument that masks help "flatten the curve" (or lower the rate of growth of COVID-19 cases) by pointing out that countries with mask usage had lower growth rates than countries without mask usage. Lets put this into perspective with an example of the misuse of statistics in advertising. Cumulative VS. Misleading pie chart 4. Likewise, what are the motives behind it? Engage with your friends and family on the problem of health misinformation. Purposeful bias is the deliberate attempt to influence findings without even feigning professional accountability. It is easy to see a correlation. 1. The problem was, the graph, which is depicted below, was built with a y-axis on a logarithmic scale instead of a linear one, making it look like the rate of change is smaller than it actually is. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article in part or whole. Basically, there is no problem pro se - but there can be. For this last question, it would be important to make sure students are not merely concluding mask mandates lead to higher case rates than not having them. There are several mistakes made at the time of the data interpretation. On top of that, the numbers can be hard to interpret, whether that's a . Although in 2007 the company was forced to pay a $600 million fine for its criminal actions, the consequences of this are still seen to date. Statistics presented without context should be viewed critically. The field of statistics is concerned with collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting data.. Manipulating the Y-axis+ 6. A trailer video introducing the Community Toolkit that can be used for educational and training purposes. But you cannot know until you ask yourself a couple of questions and analyze the results you have in between your hands. To avoid situations like this, there is a bunch of healthcare analytics software that assists analysts and average users in the creation of stunning and accurate visualizations for their data. Seasonal flu, meanwhile, only kills around 0.1%. . Whatever the types of graphs and charts you choose to use, it must convey: - The method of calculation (e.g., dataset and time period). The below chart expresses the 30-year change in global mean temperatures. Ebola, for example, kills 50% of the people it infects on average, which is why the doctors who treat it wear hazmat suits. ) or https:// means youve safely connected When creating a graph to portray a statistic, it is natural to assume that the X and Y axes start at zero. Incentivize coordination across grantees to maximize reach, avoid duplication, and bring together a diversity of expertise. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The source of the initial criticism appears to have come from The Rachel Maddow Show (yes, the same one that shared a poorly crafted data visualization in Case 1, but carefully dissected the (mis)representation in this case), which can be viewed in a short video tweeted on May 15 by Acyn Torabi. It demonstrates the change in air temperature (Celsius) from 1998 to 2012. These two questions are likely to provoke far different responses, even though they deal with the same topic of government assistance. Nutrition studies have a particularly bad reputation in the news. For instance, the nature of the group of people surveyed: asking a class of college students about the legal drinking age, or a group of retired people about the elderly care system. Datasets are analyzed in ad hoc and exploratory ways. These controlling measures are essential and should be part of any experiment or survey unfortunately, that isnt always the case. In 2007, Colgate was ordered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the U.K. to abandon their claim: More than 80% of Dentists recommend Colgate. The slogan in question was positioned on an advertising billboard in the U.K. and was deemed to be in breach of U.K. advertising rules. They're infallible, concrete, impossible to argue with -- however you want to spin it, they make one solid point. However, some survival rate statistics can be misleading because they don't take into account differences in patient characteristics, such as age, sex, and stage of disease. 19 Most Misleading Statistics (That Are Technically Correct) By: Cracked Plasticians April 20, 2016 Advertisement When the math adds up, the numbers never lie. Train journalists, editors, and other media professionals to recognize, correct, and avoid amplifying misinformation. If youre not sure, dont share. However, when considering other factors such as the health conditions in which patients arrived at the hospitals we can drive other conclusions. Depending on the measure, data can be collected from different sources, including medical records, patient surveys, and administrative databases used to pay bills or to manage care. Limiting misinformation helps us make more educated decisions for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. Oh, wait -- did we say spin? However, a closer look shows that the X-axis starts at 420,000 instead of 0. No matter how good a study might be, if it's not written using objective and formal language, then it is at risk to mislead. Misuse of statistics is present everywhere and news outlets are no exception. On August 6, Steven Strogratz posted the following plot on Twitter (see Figure 2), which was a recreation of the plot produced by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment with the right side vertical scale removed and both categories of data appropriately placed on the same scale. For further thinking about this topic, I recommend this blogpost (Rost Citation2018, May). This is a clear situation in which the axes are manipulated to show a specific result that is misleading. Taking that into account, what the graph is actually showing is an increase in deaths using firearms after the law was enacted. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. Misleading statistics in politics are quite common. You can see the updated version below. While numbers dont lie, they can in fact be used to mislead with half-truths. While a malicious intent to blur lines with misleading statistics will surely magnify bias, the intent is not necessary to create misunderstandings. This rare disease causes the spine of a baby to form improperly and can lead to serious mobility impairments and possible organ malfunctions. Which saw an increase of millions of visitors in just a couple of years, so far, everything looks normal. please save N95s and surgical masks for our healthcare workers who . After showing this plot to students, some useful questions could be: Fig. Number don't add up 11. You can see a graph that shows the UK National debt from 1995 to 2016. By Nikki Gilliland July 25th 2016. The Surgeon Generals Community Toolkit for Addressing Health Misinformation provides specific guidance and resources for health care providers, educators, librarians, faith leaders, and trusted community members to understand, identify, and stop the spread of health misinformation in their communities. Share sensitive information only on official, It is, therefore, argued by global warming opponents that, as there was a 0.1-degree decrease in the global mean temperature over a 14-year period, global warming is disproved. Staying with our example, that would look like this: Given the rising costs to the middle class, do you support government assistance programs?. We found 18 examples of false advertising scandals that have rocked big brands some are still ongoing and not all companies have had to pay up, but each dealt with a fair amount of negative. Learn everything there is to know about the power of professional area charts. Brian Kemp's said: "The x-axis was set up that way to show descending values to more easily demonstrate peak values and counties on those dates, our mission failed. . However, when taking a closer look at the graph, we can see that the y-axis is reversed, starting with the highest numbers at the bottom and reaching 0 at the top. Misleading statistics are dangerous. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, it has been shown that a third of the scientists admitted that they had questionable research practices, including withholding analytical details and modifying results! So, let's explore some interesting choices of using data visualization tools and discuss why they are misleading. Evaluate the effectiveness of internal policies and practices in addressing misinformation and be transparent with findings. The most recent case happened not too long ago in September 2021. Survival Rates in Cancer Survival rates are often used as a measure of cancer treatment success. In the digital age, these capabilities are only further enhanced and harnessed through the implementation of advanced technology and business intelligence software. Now, the obvious answer is going for option A. Let's check those mistakes. Developed in collaboration with the Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES). Lets explain this better with an example. Misleading Graphs: Incomplete Data. These are important questions to ponder and answer before spreading everywhere skewed or biased results even though it happens all the time, because of amplification. Increase resources and technical assistance to state and local public health agencies to help them better address questions, concerns, and misinformation. This is paired with the fact that counties are not always depicted in the same order, but instead in descending order of cases.