Fig. As healthcare is so dominant in the news, I want to show an example of a confusing and misleading graph about a hospital. If you really want to make a shocking statement, make sure you only include part of the data. 5 Ways Writers Use Misleading Graphs To Manipulate You - Venngage 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? Ebola, for example, kills 50% of the people it infects on average, which is why the doctors who treat it wear hazmat suits. Overloading readers with data 9. The available information and expert opinion seems to vacillateone year fats are terrible for you and the next they are a health food. To learn about our use of cookies and how you can manage your cookie settings, please see our Cookie Policy. By Nikki Gilliland July 25th 2016. There are two problems with this. Six brands that have made false health claims in advertising - Econsultancy This makes it appear that KFCs wrap has half the calories as the ones from Taco Bell, Burger King, or Wendys when is actually just 70 calories less. For instance, of 100 patients that arrived in poor condition in Hospital A, 30 survived. Now, as we learned throughout this post, we cant say with certainty that the law caused the rise in deaths as there are other factors that could influence that number. On Sept. 29, 2015, Republicans from the U.S. Congress questioned Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, regarding the misappropriation of $500 million in annual federal funding. It is a data mining technique where extremely large volumes of data are analyzed for the purpose of discovering relationships between different points. The selective bias is slightly more discreet for those who do not read the small lines. About eight-in-ten U.S. murders in 2021 - 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% - involved a firearm. Likewise, in order to ensure you keep a certain distance to the studies and surveys you read, remember the questions to ask yourself - who researched and why, who paid for it, and what was the sample. 5 sources of misleading statistics (& how they can jeopardize your The intent is to convey a shift in focus from cancer screenings to abortion. Moreover, we believe these kinds of examples are useful in expanding the toolkit of resources available that are in line with other similar resources, such as the book published by Madison etal. Here are a few potential mishaps that commonly lead to misuse: The manner in which questions are phrased can have a huge impact on the way an audience answers them. Basically, there is no problem pro se - but there can be. Insightful graphs and charts include a very basic, but essential, grouping of elements. This is problematic because this plot was used to describe statistical trends directly to the general public. Imagine you are in need of risky emergency surgery and have to choose between going to hospitals A or B to get it. In May 2020, around 5 months after COVID-19 started spreading around the world, the US Georgia Department of Public Health posted a chart that aimed at showing the top 5 counties that had the highest COVID-19 cases in the past 15 days and the number of cases over time. Staying with our example, that would look like this: Given the rising costs to the middle class, do you support government assistance programs?. Assess the impact of health misinformation. 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 Disinformation is when misinformation is used to serve a malicious purpose, such as to trick people into believing something for financial gain or political advantage. What if the measured variables were different? Misleading graphs are a source of misinformation that worry many experts. Remember, misuse of statistics can be accidental or purposeful. This slide includes the key takeaways from the advisory. Whether this person notices or not, they might be providing an inaccurate or manipulated picture to confirm a specific conclusion. Convene federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, private, nonprofit, and research partners to explore the impact of health misinformation and establish best practices for prevention. Take this first example of a misleading graph that proves global warming is real. Stopping COVID-19 with Misleading Graphs | by Nikita Kotsehub | Towards However, closer inspection reveals that the dates along the horizontal axis are not in order of time, with, for instance, May 1 appearing before April 30 and April 26 appearing in between May 7 (on the left) and May 3 (on the right). Using a clearly defined scale, here is what the information looks like: Once placed within a clearly defined scale, it becomes evident that while the amount of cancer screenings has in fact decreased, it still far outnumbers the amount of abortion procedures performed yearly. Population ageing is happening more quickly than in the past. This is a useful way to show how the use of two vertical axes can aid in visualizing association between two phenomena, particularly because the two vertical axes are different unitsallowing for a more accurate comparison. People who were more susceptible to . Misuse of Statistics- What Leads to The Misuse of Statistics You can see a graph that shows the UK National debt from 1995 to 2016. Statistics - Using the Truth to Mislead - The Health Care Blog Managing Partners: Martin Blumenau, Ruth Pauline Wachter | Trade Register: Berlin-Charlottenburg HRB 144962 B | Tax Identification Number: DE 28 552 2148, News, Insights and Advice for Getting your Data in Shape, BI Blog | Data Visualization & Analytics Blog | datapine, NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Here is a guide from the CDC on the myths and facts about COVID-19 vaccination. When the Georgia Department of Public Health posted this plot (see Figure 3), it went viral because of what may have been intentional data manipulation. The graph generated a big controversy on social media, especially on Twitter, where users pointed out that the Georgia Health Department had repeatedly used misleading statistics during the COVID-19 outbreak. Example #1. What is a conclusion you could draw from this plot that would be more accurate (i.e., pushing them to consider association or correlation concepts)? Using the wrong graph. While numbers dont lie, they can in fact be used to mislead with half-truths. For these reasons, a firm understanding of data science is an essential skill for professionals. Is the language being used objective and formal? Verify the accuracy of information by checking with trustworthy and credible sources. Here's my top five falsehoods-in-figures: 1. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. Example 8: Urban Planning. Another issue, and maybe the worst of them all, is that the dates under the bars are not ordered chronologically. By closing this message, you are consenting to our use of cookies. . Partner with community groups and other local organizations to prevent and address health misinformation. This means that there is no definable justification for the placement of the visible measurement lines. These examples bring up several concepts that are, under the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (NGAC & CCSSO 2010), introduced beginning in the sixth grade, such as understanding differences between histograms and bar charts, as well as drawing comparisons between two samples, leading to an understanding of association (for both continuous data and categorical data) and correlation. Incentivize coordination across grantees to maximize reach, avoid duplication, and bring together a diversity of expertise. Misleading Statistics - Real World Examples For Misuse of Data - Bad If you are the one performing the analysis, for instance generating reports for your job, you can ask yourself a few relevant questions to avoid using misleading statistics. We note that these examples come from the context of the United States as that is the context the authors are most familiar with, however, from scanning the news, these seem to be issues common across the world during this highly politicized global pandemic where peoples lives and politicians power are in danger. The name and date of birth used in this example are imaginative, used for illustrative purposes, and do not represent an actual patient. Top Five False Statistics | TIME.com Type the claim into a search engine to see if it has been verified by a credible source. 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. Going against convention 8. Increase resources and technical assistance to state and local public health agencies to help them better address questions, concerns, and misinformation. These studies are very soon contradicted by other important or outlandish findings. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System Although this controversy happened around 1996, the case of Purdue Pharma and their highly addictive drug OxyContin is still affecting thousands of American citizens and has already taken the lives of thousands of others to this date, all due to the misuse of statistics as a marketing tactic. The power of words is huge, therefore, carefully looking at the way a study is written is another great practice to assess its quality. Just like other industries or areas that we will cover on this list of examples, the healthcare industry is not free of the misuse of statistics. But you cannot know until you ask yourself a couple of questions and analyze the results you have in between your hands. Spain and Italy have large populations, but enormous. We also discuss the possible source/motivations behind such (mis)representation of the data. Now that we've put the misuse of statistics in context, let's look at various digital age examples of statistics that are misleading across five distinct, but related, spectrums: media and politics, news, advertising, science, and healthcare. This conversation will support students in then reconsidering the first plots from Case 1 from the Kansas Department of Health (see Figure 1), with a new understanding of their usefulness. There are several mistakes made at the time of the data interpretation. Address health misinformation in your community. Each is likely a result of a third factor, that being: an increased population, due to the high tourism season in the month of June. It can be difficult to know which sources of information you can trust. And over the years, tobacco. It would be preposterous to say that they cause each other and that is exactly why it is our example. To illustrate this point further, lets assume that a study has found a correlation between an increase in car accidents in the state of New York in the month of June (A), and an increase in bear attacks in the state of New York in the month of June (B). Data (Mis)representation and COVID-19: Leveraging Misleading Data Small samples underrepresent your target audience. Source #1: A small sample size. It is easy to see a correlation. As such, this is a great misleading statistics example, and some could argue bias considering that the chart originated not from the Congressman, but from Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group. Especially people with a low graph literacy are thought to be persuaded by graphs that misrepresent the underlying data. As an exercise in due diligence, we will review some of the most common forms of misuse of statistics, and various alarming (and sadly, common) misleading statistics examples from public life. Instead, we see the dates between April and May interspersed with the aim of making viewers of this graph believe that the cases are gradually decreasing. These controlling measures are essential and should be part of any experiment or survey unfortunately, that isnt always the case. As you saw throughout this post, illustrated with some insightful bad statistics examples, using data in a misleading way is very easy. Specific wording patterns have a persuasive effect and induce respondents to answer in a predictable manner. 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. The Worst Covid-19 Misleading Graphs - DataScienceCentral.com Collecting data from too small a group can skew your survey and test results. For example, if an urban planner sees that population growth in a certain part of the city is increasing at an exponential rate compared to other . Statistical studies can also assist in the marketing of goods or services, and in understanding each target markets unique value drivers. There are two take-aways when comparing the two plots. Cherry Picking 2. Asking a question to a sample size of 20 people, where 19 answers "yes" (=95% say for yes) versus asking the same question to 1,000 people and 950 answers "yes" (=95% as well): the validity of the percentage is clearly not the same. 10 Bogus -- And Widely Believed -- Statistics - Seeker The prevalence of health misinformation was the highest on Twitter and on issues related to smoking products and drugs. At a glance, the chart makes you believe that The Times has twice as many full-price subscriptions as its competitor. Christopher Engledowl & Travis Weiland wrote an insightful article called Data (Mis)representation and COVID-19: Leveraging Misleading Data Visualizations For Developing Statistical Literacy Across Grades 616. Now, you might be wondering, how can this be misleading? It is fixed". A slideshow version of the Community Toolkit for educators and other community leaders. However, a closer look shows that the X-axis starts at 420,000 instead of 0. Oh, wait -- did we say spin? - Do you think that the government should help those people who cannot find work? Here Are the Most Misleading Product Claims | Time Based on the structure of the chart, it does in fact appear to show that the number of abortions since 2006 experienced substantial growth, while the number of cancer screenings substantially decreased. Bad Data Visualization in the Time of COVID-19 - Medium 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. Misleading Data Visualization Examples 1. 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. Carefully review information in preprints. Share sensitive information only on official, The number of people aged 60 years or older will rise from 900 million to 2 billion between 2015 and 2050 (moving from 12% to 22% of the total global population). Whether for market intelligence, customer experience, or business reporting, the future of data is now. Purposely or not, the time periods we choose to portray will affect the way viewers perceive the data. In this case, the goal is not association, but comparison, thereby making it a bit more difficult to initially interpret the data. The report, "Births: Preliminary Data for 2009" found that the rate for the youngest teenagers, 10-14 years, fell from 0.6 to 0.5 per 1,000, also the lowest level ever reported. This (mis)representation led to exaggerated claims about changes in cases, which was immediately evident when it was reported that Kansas counties that have mask mandates in place have seen a rapid drop in cases, while counties that only recommend their use have seen no decrease in cases, the states top health official said Wednesday (Hegeman Citation2020, August 5, emphasis added).