Index

“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

Twitter

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