Misrepresenting Data and
Critiquing Graphs

Deceptive Graph Techniques

1. Graph is accurate, but misleading:
a. giving an irrelevant correlation
b. ignoring other variables
examples: asking the wrong questions
not factoring in population growth
missing information to needed to understand the data
c. “cherry picking” data
d. graph is not properly labeled

2. Scale is distorted
a. scale does not start at zero
b. scale is enlarged
c. scale is too small
d. there is no scale or units are missing

3. Graph is not accurately drawn or distorts the information
a. pieces of the graph appear larger or smaller than they should
ex. 3-D graphs
ex. picture graphs
b. percents don’t add up to 100
c. pieces in a chart are not in the correct ratios
d. graph is drawn upside down
e. units are not evenly or proportionally spaced

Info taken from: https://www.frontporchmath.com/topics/probability-statistics/graphs/misleading-graphs/ 

https://towardsdatascience.com/misleading-graphs-e86c8df8c5de