“Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.”
abdominal mesothelioma, 192–93
abortion debate, 53–57
adjusted (real) data
cases in which both adjusted and nonadjusted data are relevant, 123–26
in discussions of health care costs, 96
in movie box-office rankings, 117–19
nonadjusted data vs., 121
and poverty–obesity correlation, 130–33
Adler, Stephen J., 1
Affordable Care Act (ACA), 166–67
African Americans
dubious data as justification for hate crimes against, 87–93
population per U.S. county, 36–37
aggregated data, individual data vs., 164–65
Albania, 128, 129
Alberto (subtropical storm), 145
Alcorcón, Spain, unemployment in, 62–63
amalgamation paradoxes, 155–58
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 57
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 167
Americans United for Life, 56
annotation layer, 25
annotations, 49, 66
area
of bubbles on population map, 40
diameter vs., 34–35
as encoding, 29–30, 33–36
and map projections, 77
of wedges on Florence Nightingale’s charts, 179–80
arithmetic mean, See average (mean)
Aronson, Elliot, 183
aspect ratio, 69
Assange, Julian, 126–29
associations, positive/negative, 32
Atdabanian period, 171
atlases, 22–23
Avatar (movie), 120
average (mean)
median vs., 26–27
as misleading, 11
as oversimplification, 114–16
and random sampling, 97
Balchin, William G. V., 18
bar charts
baseline choice for, 60–62
bubble charts vs., 34
poorly-designed, 12–13
stacked, 178
visual encodings, 25
Barclays Bank, gender pay gap at, 94–95
Barrack Hospital at Scutari, 177–78
Barrasso, John, 86
baseline
of bar charts, 13
concealed, 126–27
matching to encoding method, 61–62
zero, See zero baseline
BBC News, 94–95
Bernstein, Carl, 105
Better Angels of Our Nature, The (Pinker), 124–25
bias
and chart design, 16–17, 63–67
and hate crimes, 93
and map design, 78–79
and motivated reasoning, 184
and Trump administration’s language on immigration, 109
birth rates, fertility rates vs., 127
Botomian period, 171
Breitbart News, 111–13
Broad, Kenny, 145–46
bubble maps, 5–6, 33–35, 40, 122–23
bubbles
area of, 29–30
area vs. diameter, 34–35
Bush, George W., and administration, 12–13, 187
Byler, David, 47
Cage, Nicolas, 173
Cambrian diversification, 170
Cambrian explosion, 169–72
cancer, 192–93
carbon dioxide emissions, 41–46
Cascallana Gallastegui, Enrique, 62
causation
correlation vs., 32, 154, 155
spurious, 173
Chaffetz, Jason, 53–54
chain migration, 108
Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre (2015), 87–88
charts (generally)
ease of creating, 18–19
ethical issues, 189–91
as insufficient source of proof, 95
lies resulting from concealing/confusing uncertainty, 135–52
lies resulting from dubious data, 81–106; See also dubious data
lies resulting from insufficient data, 107–33
lies resulting from poor design, 53–79
lies resulting from suggesting misleading patterns, 153–73
mechanism of operation, 21–51
Florence Nightingale’s use of, 175–81, 184–85, 188
reasons for lies by, 50–51
cheating, 183–84
cherry-picking of data, 107; See also insufficient data
China, CO2 emissions–GDP comparison, 41–46
cigarette smoking, life expectancy and, 153–58
Citizens for Trump (Posobiec), 2
Claiborne County, Mississippi, 132
climate change
deceptive line chart for, 65–67
and significance of “modest” temperature increases, 135–40
“Climate of Complete Certainty” (Stephens), 135–36
Clinton, Hillary, 3–7
Coase, Ronald, 93
CO2 emissions, 41–46
cognitive dissonance, 184, 186
cognitive psychology, 41
color
as encoding, 36–37, 48
hue, 36, 39, 48
on maps, 24–25, 78–79
shade, 36, 37, 40, 48
color bins, 79
color scale, 78
Commercial and Political Atlas (Playfair), 21–23
cone-of-uncertainty map, 146–52
confidence interval, 142
confidence level, 142
confirmation bias, 16, 184, 186
confounding factors, 155
connected scatter plots, 43–45, 165
conversations, charts as means of enhancing, 188
Cook County, Illinois, poverty and obesity rates in, 130–33
Copenhagen Diagnosis project, 139
corporate income tax, 16
corrections, of sources, 105
correlation
causation vs., 32, 154, 155
positive, 14–15
spurious, 172–73
Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), 88
counterfactuals, 126–27, 167
county-level electoral maps, 4, 5, 8
Coyne, Jerry, 158
creationism, Cambrian explosion and, 169–72
crime
DACA recipients and, 111–13
dubious data as justification for hate crimes, 87–93
Trump’s misuse of statistics, 9–11
Crimean War, unsanitary medical treatment during, 176–81
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), 111–13
Darwin, Charles, 170
data
adjusted, See adjusted data
aggregated vs. individual, 164–65
dubious, See dubious data
importance of reliability, 181
nominal, See nonadjusted data
tips for vetting, 102–6
data aggregation, 162
deliberation, 186
Democrats
in election of 2016, 3, 4, 8
opinion on Iraq War surge, 187
in poor counties, 163, 164
and pornography, 99, 102
in special elections since 2016, 48–50
Denmark, 128
denominators, 112, 121, 122
diameter, area vs., 34–35
disinformation, 190–91
Disney, 120
Disraeli, Benjamin, 188
Dow Jones Industrial Average, 168–69
drinking water access (fictional example), 63–64
dubious data
charts that lie by displaying, 81–106
extraordinary claims supported by, 99–102
on gender and pay, 93–95
on health care costs, 95–98
as justification for hate crimes, 87–93
map on concentration of heavy metal bands in Europe, 81–85
map on homeless children enrolled in school in Florida, 85–86
principles for spreading information on social media, 103–4
social media as source of, 86–87
tips for vetting data, 102–6
“Dumbfuckistan,” 8–9
Eastwood, Clint, 120
ecological fallacy, 18, 154, 155
Edelman, Benjamin, 101–2
election of 2016
electoral maps, 1–9
special election results following, 47–50
elections
uncertainty in polls, 141–43
and voting in conservative districts, 162–64
Electoral College, 6
electoral maps, 1–9
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Charleston, South Carolina), 87–88
encoding, visual
area as, 29–30, 33–36; See also area
and baseline decisions, 61, 68
color as, 36–37, 48; See also color
as core element of chart, 25
height as, 60
incorporating multiple methods of, 38–42
line width/thickness as, 38
position as, 26–29, 40; See also position
on scatter plots, 48–49
Encyclopaedia Metallum, 82
Enlightenment Now (Pinker), 125
equality, happiness and, 159–60
error, in context of statistics, 141–43
estimates, as product of science/statistics, 143
ethics, 189–91
Every Which Way but Loose (movie), 120
evidence, 186
evolution, Cambrian explosion and, 169–72
exaggerated perspective, 59
expectations, when reading charts, 41
expertise, and vetting sources, 106
exponential growth, logarithmic scales for, 73–74
extraordinary claims, 99–102
Fact-Checking Day website, 103
Factfulness (Rosling), 124–25
family-based migration, 107–10
family income, household income vs., 114
Fandango, 118
Farr, William, 178, 179, 185
fertility rates
and Julian Assange’s arguments about migration, 127–30
Spain vs. Sweden, 38–39
Field, Kenneth, 4–6
films, highest-grossing, 117–20
Finland
fertility rates, 128
heavy metal bands based in, 81–85
FloorCharts, 86
Florida
homeless children enrolled in school in, 85–86
median income by county, 26–29
Fox News, 12–13
Frank, Thomas, 162–63
fruit consumption, pictorial charts, 15–16
Gamio, Lázaro, 38
García Márquez, Gabriel, 46
gender, pay gap and, 93–95
Gigerenzer, Gerd, 126
Global Goals initiative (United Nations), 125
global warming, See climate change
Gould, Stephen Jay, 192–93
graphicacy, 18
gross domestic product (GDP)
CO2 emissions compared to, 42–46
and life expectancy, 71–73
misrepresentation with bad chart design, 65–66
growth, logarithmic scales for, 73–74
Halford, Rob, 83, 84
Happiness Index, 159
happiness–religion correlation, 158–62
Harris County, Texas, poverty/obesity rates in, 130–33
hate crimes, 87–93
H-1B visa program, 110
health care costs, 95–98
health expenditures, life expectancy vs., 164–65
heavy metal bands, 81–85
hierarchies, nested, 35–36
high school graduation rates, 60–62
Hispanics, 36–37
histograms, 114–15
hockey stick chart, 137
Holland, Steve, 1
homeless children, in Florida school system, 85–86
honesty of sources, rules of thumb for determining, 104–6
horizontal axis (x), 61
cropping to create misleading chart, 168
and distortions, 62–63
household income, 114–15
How to Lie with Maps (Monmonier), 76
How to Lie with Statistics (Huff), 67
hue, 36, 39
Huff, Darrell, 67
Hungary, 129
hunger, worldwide rate of, 124
Hurricane Irma, 146–47
hurricane tracking charts, 145–52
hygiene, wartime casualties and, 176–81, 184–85, 188
hyperbole, 70, 78–79
hyperpartisanship, 106
immigration
Breitbart News claims about DACA recipients, 111–13
Trump administration’s family-based migration policies, 107–10
and violent death rate in countries of origin, 17
incarceration rates, 16
income
dot chart for, 26–33
median U.S., 114
and smoking–life expectancy relationship, 155–57
and 2017 tax cut, 114–16
income distribution, 114–15
India, 45
individuals, populations vs., 17–18
inequality, religion–happiness correlation and, 160–62
infant mortality, 125
inference, 182
inflation, 118; See also adjusted (real) data
information, propaganda vs., 181
Ingraham, Christopher, 100
insufficient data
Breitbart News claims about DACA recipients, 111–13
concealed baselines/counterfactuals, 126–27
and highest-grossing film comparisons, 117–20
and infant mortality statistics, 125
lies resulting from, 107–33
and obesity–poverty link, 130–33
and promotion of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 113–16
and smallpox vaccination efficacy, 121–23
and starvation rates, 124
and Trump administration’s claims about family-based migration policies, 107–10
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 139, 140
International Federation of Health Plans (IFHP), 96–98
Internet, as source of dubious data, 86–87
Iraq War (2003–2011), 186–89
Italy, 129
Jaws (movie), 119, 120
job market, 187–88; See also unemployment
John Carter (movie), 120
journalism
as “discipline of verification,” 191
partisanship and, 105
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 101
Judas Priest (band), 83–84
Kaplan–Meier plot, 158, 192
Kid Rock, 7–9
King, Steve, 17
Kosslyn, Stephen, 41
Krause, Heather, 143
Krugman, Paul, 9–11
Lambert’s Cylindrical Equal Area projection, 77
language, framing debates with, 108–9
latitude, 23
Latvia, 129
legend, 24–25
life expectancy
cigarette smoking and, 153–58
GDP and, 71–73
health expenditures and, 164–65
line chart, 68–70
scatter plot, 71
line, imaginary, 32
line charts, 21–22, 39
Little Ice Age, 66
loaded language, 106, 108
logarithmic scale, 71, 73–74
longitude, 23
Los Angeles county
population, 33–35
poverty and obesity rates, 130–33
MacDonald, Heather, 88
MacGillis, Alec, 163–64
Majumdar, Sharan, 145–46
maps
bad design choices, 78–79
charts as, 22–23
electoral, 1–9
projections, 76–78
margin of error, 97, 141–43
Marian, Jakub, 81, 82
Mason, Jeff, 1
Mavrantonis, Athan, 124
McElwee, Sean, 65
mean, See average (mean)
median income
by Florida county, 26–29
in U.S., 114
Melgar, Luís, 85–86
mental models, 41–42
Mercator projection, 76
mesothelioma, 192–93
metal bands, 81–85
Meyer, Stephen C., 171
Miami-Dade County, 33–35
misleading patterns
and Affordable Care Act–unemployment correlation, 166–67
and aggregated vs. individual data, 164–65
and amalgamation paradoxes, 155–58
cigarette smoking–life expectancy relationship, 153–58
and creationist interpretation of Cambrian explosion, 169–72
lies resulting from, 153–73
and religion–happiness correlation, 158–62
and spurious causations, 172–73
and voting in poor but conservative districts, 162–64
and “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” paradox, 162–64
mistake, error vs., 143
Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) (Tavris and Aronson), 183
Monmonier, Mark, 18, 76
mortality rates, Crimean War, 176–81
motivated reasoning, 186
movies, highest-grossing, 117–20
murder rate, 9–11
music (map of concentrations of heavy metal bands in Europe), 81–85
national debt, 65
National Hurricane Center (NHC) storm tracking charts, 145, 147–49, 151, 152
National Review, 65–67, 88
Nazis, disinformation by, 190–91
nested hierarchies, 35–36
New York Times, 135
Nightingale, Florence, 175–81, 184–85, 188
nihilism, 106, 150
nonadjusted (nominal) data
adjusted data vs., 121
cases in which both adjusted and nonadjusted data are relevant, 123–26
in discussions of health care costs, 96
in movie box-office rankings, 117–19
and poverty–obesity correlation, 130–33
North Carolina, 8
numerical tables, charts vs., 27
numerical uncertainty, 142
Nyhan, Brendan, 186–89
Obama, Barack, and administration
Affordable Care Act, 166
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 167
DACA, 111
and expiration of Bush tax cuts, 12–13
high school graduation rates under, 60–62
public opinion on job market under, 187–88
unemployment trends under, 168
Obamacare (Affordable Care Act), 166–67
obesity, poverty and, 130–33
objectivity, charts’ appearance of, 16
Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, 132
100 People website, 123–24
One Hundred Years of Solitude (García Márquez), 46
On the Origin of Species (Darwin), 170
Ottoman Empire, 176
Our World in Data website, 164–65
parallel coordinates plot, 42
Paranormal Activity (movie), 120
partisanship, 104–6
patterns
in good chart design, 49–50
misleading, See misleading patterns
in poor chart design and, 128
pay gap, gender and, 93–95
Pearl, Judea, 121
people criticized on social media by, 38
percentage change, percentage point change vs., 86
percentages, nonadjusted data vs., 130–33
Pérez García, David, 62
perspective effects, 59
Pew Research Center, 13–14
pictorial charts, 15–16
pie charts, 36
Pinker, Steven, 124–25
Planned Parenthood, 53–57
Playfair, William, 21–23
plurality, Electoral College and, 6–7
Poison (band), 84
Poland, fertility rates in, 128, 129
PolitiFact, 55
polls, See public opinion polls
pollution, 41
poor design
Alcorcón, Spain, unemployment statistics, 62–63
in anti-abortion charts, 53–57
chart distortions, 60–62
distortions in (fictional) drinking water charts, 63–64
inappropriate scale and, 71–74
lies resulting from, 53–79
life expectancy chart, 68–70
and map projections, 76–78
maps design, 78–79
National Review climate change chart, 65–67
sales charts, 57–59
truncated/twisted encoding, 75–76
popular vote, Electoral College vote vs., 6–7
populations
bar graph of, 25
on bubble charts/maps, 29–30, 33–35
color for encoding, 36–37
individuals vs., 17–18
logarithmic scales to represent exponential growth, 73–74
median values and, 28
and random sampling, 97
on treemaps, 35–36
truncated/twisted encoding data for, 75–76
Pornhub, 99–102
pornography, political affiliation and, 99–102
Portugal, fertility rates in, 128, 129
position
as encoding, 26–29, 40
on line graphs, 39
on parallel coordinates plot, 42
on scatter plot, 48–49
positive association, 32
positive correlation, 14–15
Posobiec, Jack, 2, 3
poverty
distorting statistics with map design, 78–79
and infant mortality, 125
and obesity, 130–33
and smoking–life expectancy connection, 157
Power Line, 65–67
Poynter Institute, 103
presidential election of 2016
electoral maps, 1–9
special election results following, 47–50
principle of appropriate knowledge, 41
principles, for determining trustworthiness of sources, 104–6
prior knowledge, when reading charts, 41
profit, of movies, 120
projections, map, 76–78
propaganda
disinformation and, 190–91
information vs., 181
loaded language and, 108
proportion, distortions of, 63
proportionality, 13, 25
Prothero, Donal R., 171
public opinion polls
conducted on websites and social media, 97
errors/uncertainty on, 141–43
on Iraq War surge, 187–89
purchasing power parity (PPP), 96
pyramid of choice, 183
quadrants, 31
quality of sources, rules of thumb for determining, 104–6
questions, charts as means of enhancing, 188
racism, dubious data as justification for, 87–93
random sampling, 97
rates (percentages), nonadjusted data vs., 130–33
rationalization, reasoning vs., 182–86
“Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?” (Edelman), 101–2
Reifler, Jason, 186–89
Reiss, Richard, 66
relationships (generally)
causation vs. correlation, 32, 155
in chart design, 49–50
illustrating with parallel coordinates, 42
reliability, rules of thumb for determining, 104–6
religion
correlation with happiness, 158–62
fertility rates and, 128
replacement rate, 128
Republicans
and election of 2016, 2–4, 8
opinion on Iraq War surge, 187
and Planned Parenthood, 53
and pornography consumption, 99
public opinion on Obama’s effect on job market, 187–88
and safety-net programs, 144
and special elections since 2016, 48–50
return on investment, of movies, 120
reverse causality, 160
Richards, Cecile, 53, 54
Robinson’s projection, 77
Roof, Dylann, 87–88
Rosling, Hans, 124–25, 181
Russian Empire, 176
Ryan, Paul, 113–16
safety net, and voting in conservative districts, 162–64
Sagan, Carl, 99
sales charts, 57–59
sampling, 97
Sanitary Commission, 177–80
sanitation, wartime casualties and, 176–81, 184–85, 188
scaffolding of a chart
elements of, 24–25
identifying distortions in, 62
scales
color, 78–79
in good chart design, 47
inappropriate, 71–74
logarithmic, 71, 73–74
in poor chart design, 13, 55–56, 60–67
Scandinavia, heavy metal bands in, 81–85
scatter plots
connected, 43–45, 165
elements of, 14–15
logarithmic scale for, 73–74
reading, 31, 43
“School without a Roof, A” (Melgar), 85–86
Schuch, Emily, 56–57
Schum, David A., 93
science, truth and, 105, 143
Scutari Barracks Hospital, 177–78
sea level rise, 66, 139
self-justification, 183; See also rationalization
self-selected samples, 97
Sessions, Jeff, 111
Shaffer, Jeffrey, 94
Shermer, Michael, 109
Simon, John, 180
simplifications
charts as, 11
trends as, 165–67
skepticism, nihilism vs., 106
slope
on line graphs, 40
on parallel coordinates plot, 42
Small, Hugh, 180
smallpox vaccinations, 121–23
smoking, See cigarette smoking
social media
polls as self-selected samples, 97
principles for spreading information on, 103–4
as source for dubious data, 103
social safety net, and voting in conservative districts, 162–64
Solt, Frederick, 160–61
sources, of chart, 47
lies resulting from, 54
map on distribution of heavy metal bands in Europe, 81–85
rules of thumb for determining trustworthiness of, 104–6
Spain, fertility rates in, 38–39, 128, 129
special election results, 47–50
Spurious Correlations (website), 172–73
stacked bar graph, 178
Staley, Jes, 95
starvation, worldwide rates of, 124
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (movie), 119
Stephens, Bret, 135–41
storm tracking charts, 145–52
“surge,” during Iraq War, 187–89
Sweden
CO2 emissions–GDP comparison, 45
CO2 emissions per capita, 41
fertility rates, 38–39
table heat map, 37
tables, charts vs., 27
Tavris, Carol, 183
tax cuts, expiration of Bush-era, 12–13
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 113–16
Taylor, Jared, 88–93
temperature
and climate change, 65–67, 136–40
table heat map for, 37
three-dimensional perspective effects, 59
time-series line graph, 21–22
title, of chart, 47
tobacco, See cigarette smoking
transparency practices, 82
treemaps, 35–36
trends; See also patterns
chart design and, 49–50
as simplification, 165–67
tropical storm tracking charts, 145–52
Trump, Donald J., and administration
and DACA, 111
and Electoral College, 7
and 2016 electoral maps, 1–4, 6
family-based migration policies, 107–10
people criticized on social media by, 38
unemployment trends under, 168
on violent crime, 9
truncated encoding objects, 75–76
trustworthiness, rules of thumb for determining, 101, 104–6
Tukey, John W., 153
Twain, Mark, 188
twisted encoding objects, 75–76
FloorCharts, 86
as source for dubious data, 103
vetting of information spread on, 191
uncertainty, concealing/confusing, 135–52
climate change and, 135–41
in election polls, 141–43
in storm tracking charts, 145–52
undecided voters, 143
understatement
and chart design, 70
and map design, 78
unemployment
Affordable Care Act and, 166
in Alcorcón, Spain, 62–63
and fertility rates, 128–29
short-term fluctuations vs. overall trends, 144
United Nations Global Goals initiative, 125
vaccination, 121–23
values (cultural), 163
values (numeric)
adjusted, See adjusted data
nominal, See nonadjusted data
verification, 85, 104–6, 191
vertical axis (y), 61
baseline on, See baseline; zero baseline
and distortions, 62–63
Victimization Survey (Bureau of Justice Statistics), 88–91
Victoria (queen of England), 179
video games, reasons for playing, 16
Vigen, Tyler, 172–73
violent crime statistics, 9–11, 88–92
violent death rates, in immigrants’ countries of origin, 17
virtual private networks (VPNs), 100–101
visual arguments, 47, 181
visual encoding, See encoding, visual
voting, See election entries
Wainer, Howard, 212
wealth; See also gross domestic product (GDP); income
and Bush tax cuts, 12
and health expenditure, 165
and pollution, 42–45
and religiosity, 160–61
and smoking–life expectancy relationship, 155–57
weather
climate vs., 136
storm tracking charts, 145–52
websites, opinion polls conducted on, 97
“Wedges, the,” 179–81
well-being, happiness and, 159–60
“What’s the Matter with Kansas?” paradox, 162–64
Why Evolution Is True (website), 158
WikiLeaks, 126–27
wind rose, 45
WonkViz, 100
Zakovich, Rody, 118
zero baseline
and data type, 60
matching to encoding method, 61–62
when not to use, 67, 68
when to use, 13