That marked the highest percentage since at least 1968, the earliest year for which the CDC has online records. Carefully review information in preprints. Source #1: A small sample size. We took a very obvious one to show you below. Truncating an axis is another way in which statistics can be misleading. By taking the following steps, we can protect ourselves and loved ones from harmful misinformation. In this article, we showcase examples of how data related to the COVID-19 pandemic has been (mis)represented in the media and by governmental agencies and discuss plausible reasons why it has been (mis)represented. Basically, there is no problem pro se - but there can be. Official websites use .govA .gov website belongs to an official government Uncover the power of spider charts with this complete guide including examples, best practices, and more! While numbers dont always have to be fabricated or misleading, it is clear that even societys most trusted numerical gatekeepers are not immune to the carelessness and bias that can arise with statistical interpretation processes. While certain topics listed here are likely to stir emotion depending on ones point of view, their inclusion is for data demonstration purposes only. The next of our most common examples for misuse of statistics and misleading data is, perhaps, the most serious. Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine. 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. As you saw throughout this post, illustrated with some insightful bad statistics examples, using data in a misleading way is very easy. Share sensitive information only on official, 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. 4 Plot published in Acquah (Citation2020, May) utilizing two vertical axes to compare ice cream consumption and drowning deaths across time to represent association. You can also ask someone external to your research to look at the data, someone biased to the topic that can confirm your results are not misleading. Registered in England & Wales No. They're infallible, concrete, impossible to argue with -- however you want to spin it, they make one solid point. During one of Fow News broadcasts, anchor Tucker Carlson displayed a graph saying that the number of Americans identifying as Christians had collapsed over the last decade. Another way of creating misleading statistics, also linked with the choice of sample discussed above, is the size of said sample. At a first glance, the graph, which is displayed below, shows a descending trend that starts the year the law was enacted, concluding that Stand Your Grown is responsible for the apparent drop in the number of murders committed using firearms in the years after it was implemented. Because "everyone who has an online presence today is a publisher" (Cairo, 2019, p. 103), inaccurate or misleading information and visualizations spread with unprecedented ease, particularly about health (Lawrence, 2020).People tend to perceive data visualizations about COVID-19 as objective representations of their numbers because they associate charts with logical arguments and . Several Twitter users began attempting to make sense of what the data were actually saying. In addition to our cases motivating discussion of association, the plots also offer an important consideration of how scaling modifications can mislead the consumer. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic misinformation has caused people to decline COVID-19 vaccines, reject public health measures such as masking and physical distancing, and use unproven treatments. 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. As we can see, the X axes here start from 590 instead of zero. tristin mays big time rush; Now, you might be wondering, how can this be misleading? This article provides guidance on best practices for detecting health misinformation and assessing the accuracy of different information sources. Using the wrong graph 7. Oh, wait -- did we say spin? By closing this message, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Staying with our example, that would look like this: Given the rising costs to the middle class, do you support government assistance programs?. Address health misinformation in your community. 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 . Lets look at one of them closely. Strengthen the monitoring of health questions, concerns, and misinformation. 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. Cherry Picking 2. There are plenty of examples available, but looking to the world of hockey, a team that gets the puck in their opponents' end during a power play and just cycle for two minutes without taking a shot actually waste a two minute opportunity with puck possession. 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. For example, one popular video recommended injecting herbs into the prostate to treat cancer, which is unproven and potentially dangerous. Ioannidis JP. This technique is often used in politics to exaggerate a result that would otherwise be much less interesting. Cherry picking data. Research 101: Descriptive statistics - American Nurse Today Taking that into account, what the graph is actually showing is an increase in deaths using firearms after the law was enacted. Was there a rapid decline in cases? Broad dissemination and consumption of false or misleading health information, amplified by the internet, poses risks to public health and problems for both the health care enterprise and the government. Sample size surveys are one example of creating misleading statistics. Imagine you are in need of risky emergency surgery and have to choose between going to hospitals A or B to get it. These two questions are likely to provoke far different responses, even though they deal with the same topic of government assistance. Stopping COVID-19 with Misleading Graphs | by Nikita Kotsehub | Towards The Govenor race where one guy's 37% was WAY more than just 37% gravismarketing.com / Via reddit.com 4. Misinformation is information that is false, inaccurate, or misleading according to the best available evidence at the time. Here are five techniques for fudging the numbers with misleading statistics examples: Technique #1: Citing Misleading "Averages" The first technique is using the word "average" without specifying what kind of average a figure represents. Examples of misuse of statistics in the media are very common. Use this checklist everytime you come across health-related content you are not sure about. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus has gripped the entire world and engaged people in consuming scientific informationperhaps more so than any other event in history. Insightful graphs and charts include a very basic, but essential, grouping of elements. Misleading Statistics - Real World Examples For Misuse of Data - Bad Misleading Statistics - Real World Examples For Misuse of Data This is according to NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Moreover, in both the Pre-K12 and College Report of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education documents (Bargagliotti etal. Seasonal flu, meanwhile, only kills around 0.1%. The size of India's middle class is 300 million people. Statistics Can Be Misleading, Especially During a Pandemic The article, titled The Times leaves the rest behind started by displaying a graphic of the exponential growth of The Times website visitors from 2004 to 2006. An infographic with tips on how to talk to your community about health misinformation. To learn about our use of cookies and how you can manage your cookie settings, please see our Cookie Policy. This misleading tactic is frequently used to make one group look better than another. 5 sources of misleading statistics (& how they can jeopardize your For example, the objective graph literacy scale is a test with 13 items. The power of words is huge, therefore, carefully looking at the way a study is written is another great practice to assess its quality. The ASA continued, Because we understood that another competitors brand was recommended almost as much as the Colgate brand by the dentists surveyed, we concluded that the claim misleadingly implied 80 percent of dentists recommend Colgate toothpaste in preference to all other brands. The ASA also claimed that the scripts used for the survey informed the participants that the study was being performed by an independent research company, which was inherently false. Furthermore, an essential discussion should center around why specific locations may have had a mask mandate versus why others may not have, and to focus attention on the change over time within each grouprather than comparing between the groups. Cumulative VS. The 10 most-shared health news stories of 2018. (Warning - Advisory Now that weve put the misuse of statistics in context, lets 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. What if it was something more believable, like Alzheimers and old age? Citation2020), this very truth has now been laid bare for the world to see in the media and social media as the general public grapples with making, and making sense of, data-based arguments around COVID-19. It is fixed". Each kind is calculated differently and gives different information (and a different impression) about the data: The chart points appear to indicate that 327,000 abortions are greater in inherent value than 935,573 cancer screenings. 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. 1. According to a definition by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a Simpsons Paradox is a statistical phenomenon where an association between two variables in a population emerges, disappears or reverses when the population is divided into subpopulations. Since the ruling, it has apologised for the 'error'. Misleading Coronavirus graphs. Whatever the types of graphs and charts you choose to use, it must convey: - The method of calculation (e.g., dataset and time period). This is problematic because this plot was used to describe statistical trends directly to the general public. 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. Statistics - Using the Truth to Mislead - The Health Care Blog Here are common types of misuse of statistics: Now that you know them, it will be easier to spot them and question all the stats that are given to you every day. As businesses are often forced to follow a difficult-to-interpret product roadmap, statistical methods can help with the planning that is necessary to navigate a landscape filled with potholes, pitfalls . Why most published research findings are false. Purposely or not, the time periods we choose to portray will affect the way viewers perceive the data. Amongst various videos of success cases of patients, merchandising, and unethical messaging included in Purdues marketing strategy to advertise OxyContin as a safe drug, there was a very interesting graph, used to prove to doctors that the drug was non-addictive because it stayed on the patients blood over time avoiding symptoms of withdrawal. With the abundance of health information available today, it can be hard to tell what is true or not. Each year, millions of research hypotheses are tested. Misuse of Statistics- What Leads to The Misuse of Statistics 8 Examples of How Statistics is Used in Real Life - Statology (1 days ago) WebMisleading Data Visualization Examples 1. A first good thing would be, of course, to stand in front of an honest survey/experiment/research pick the one you have beneath your eyes , that has applied the correct techniques of collection and interpretation of data. Cherry Picking 2. examples of misleading statistics in healthcare a comment eurasia group chairman. Using the wrong graph 7. secure websites. Clearly, there is a correlation between the two, but is there causation? If youre not sure, dont share. Misleading Statistics In Healthcare - health-improve.org 39 Most Outrageous Product Claims of All Time - 24/7 Wall St. Editors, clients, and people want something new, not something they know; thats why we often end up with an amplification phenomenon that gets echoed and more than it should. You can be drawn in by the good from what appears to be a reputable source and then can. Independent university study group, lab-affiliated research team, consulting company? Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies and policies to prevent and address health misinformation. 3 Tweet on May 16 by Calling Bullshit showing a misleading plot produced by the Georgia Department of Public Health. You can be the judge. Data dredging is a self-serving technique often employed for the unethical purpose of circumventing traditional data mining techniques, in order to seek additional conclusions that do not exist. Surgeon General Our Priorities Health Misinformation Health Misinformation With the abundance of health information available today, it can be hard to tell what is true or not. 18 False Advertising Scandals - Business Insider In an undergraduate-level context, it is fairly common to reason about side-by-side histograms, or to create them, in statistics courses or quantitative reasoning courses. Some useful questions to ask could be: What purpose might the Georgia Department of Public Health have had in manipulating the plot in this way? The ASA stated that the claim would be understood by readers to mean that 80 percent of dentists recommend Colgate over and above other brands, and the remaining 20 percent would recommend different brands.. 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. Yet, as we learned from the Argentinian graph, looks can deceive. Just one in a long line of brands to falsely claim a product has health benefits, it . The first example of misleading data visualization comes to us courtesy of Reddit but was originally propagated by Fox news. 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. Statistical reliability is crucial in order to ensure the precision and validity of the analysis. For example, let's say you're comparing mammal weights. What information is missing from this data? Now, the obvious answer is going for option A. Address health misinformation in your community by working with schools, community groups, and health care professionals to develop local strategies against misinformation. Image: Yale University What's wrong with this picture? Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah explained: In pink, thats the reduction in the breast exams, and the red is the increase in the abortions. For instance, of 100 patients that arrived in poor condition in Hospital A, 30 survived. There is also no evidence to say that the Florida Law Enforcement Department was purposely deceiving the public. The below graph is the one most often referenced to disprove global warming. Consider headlines and images that inform rather than shock or provoke. The issue comes with the second graph that is displayed in the article, in which we see a comparison of full-price sales between The Times and one of its biggest competitors, the Daily Telegraph. Sample size is especially important if you analyze results in terms . What would your conclusion be about the importance of a mask mandate? The above graph/chart was presented as a point of emphasis. The most recent case happened not too long ago in September 2021. Provide the public with context to avoid skewing their perceptions about ongoing debates on health topics. As an entrepreneur and former consultant, Mark Suster advises in an article, you should wonder who did the primary research of said analysis. Going https://rigorousthemes.com/blog/misleading-data-visualization-examples/ Category: Health Show Health And over the years, tobacco. The intent is to convey a shift in focus from cancer screenings to abortion. Developed in collaboration with the Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES). 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. to the .gov website. Increase investment in research on 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 The below chart expresses the 30-year change in global mean temperatures. Doing a quick research, you find that 900 out of 1000 patients that went into surgery at Hospital A survived, while 800 out of 1000 survived at Hospital B. Misleading Statistics: Definition & Examples - Video & Lesson Grueskin shared some of these insightful examples of misleading statistics in the news in a Twitter thread that became very popular. Ignoring the uncertainty of the collected data or numbers. 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). Omitting the baseline. For the presidential run of 2012, the news network showed the graph below where we see a pie chart displaying a total of 193% which is clearly wrong and misleading as the total should be 100%. examples of misleading statistics in healthcare If the sample size of the study is too small to prove its conclusion then you should be responsible enough and not use these results as an absolute truth as this paves the way for future misinformation. Misinformation spreads especially easily on social media and online retail sites, as well as via search engines. Purposeful bias is the deliberate attempt to influence findings without even feigning professional accountability. (Citation2012) titled Case Studies for Quantitative Reasoning: A Casebook of Media Articles. In a similar fashion, once students have begun to develop an understanding of associationa topic beginning in the eighth grade under CCSSM, and appearing in tertiary statistics as well as quantitative reasoning coursesa time-series plot might be shared, such as the one in Figure 4 taken from this blog post (Acquah Citation2020, May). Are you being misled by statistics? - Clearer Thinking When an experiment or a survey is led on a totally not significant sample size, not only will the results be unusable, but the way of presenting them - namely as percentages - will be totally misleading. PLoS Med. Here's my top five falsehoods-in-figures: 1. An official website of the They sure can. Rather its politicians trying to make a point for their own interest or just someone not understanding the information behind the graphs and charts they create, crime statistics are not free of being misleading. But, what about causation? Fig. That said, a bigger sample size is always better, as it highlights statistical differences more accurately. The image below shows a graph advertising KFCs crispy chicken twister wrap and comparing its calories with other brands with a similar product. Establish quality metrics to assess progress in information literacy. Papaya leaf juice, elderberry, dates, thyme, garlic, jasmine, limes, okra and other herbs, vegetables and exotic fruits were all offered this year as cures for cancer, diabetes, asthma and the flu.. Manipulating the Y-axis+ 6. It is a data mining technique where extremely large volumes of data are analyzed for the purpose of discovering relationships between different points. Datasets are analyzed in ad hoc and exploratory ways. About eight-in-ten U.S. murders in 2021 - 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% - involved a firearm. Nutrition studies have a particularly bad reputation in the news. Content. The misuse of statistics is a much broader problem that now permeates multiple industries and fields of study. 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). Overloading readers with data 9. Misuse of statistics often happens in advertisements, politics, news, media, and others. The graph was later republished with organized dates and counties. People who were more susceptible to . 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. Likewise, what are the motives behind it? Prioritize early detection of misinformation super-spreaders and repeat offenders. (labels are clear, axes begin at 0, right chart type, etc) Is the research represented honestly and in an impartial manner? Secure .gov websites use HTTPSA lock ( 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. Many seem wilfully false, created out of, say, a journalist's desire to create a sensation, a government's need to make a political point or an aid agency's wish for more funds. Here Are the Most Misleading Product Claims | Time 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). How inclusive was it? Absent these elements, visual data representations should be viewed with a grain of salt, taking into account the common data visualization mistakes one can make. Three Misleading, Dangerous Coronavirus Statistics More recently, other studies led by Dr. Loeb found similarly misleading information about prostate cancer on TikTok and Instagram. Misleading Healthcare Graph Take care to apply data responsibly, ethically, and visually, and watch your transparent corporate identity grow. Too good to be true: 39 products with exaggerated or misleading claims Expand efforts to build long-term resilience to misinformation, such as educational programs. Until March 26, the bars' heights correspond to the numbers. Yet, closer examination will reveal that the chart has no defined y-axis. Misleading Statistics - Real World Examples For Misuse of Data Continue to modernize public health communications. Citation2020; GAISE College Report ASA Revision Committee Citation2016), there are specific goals related to being a critical consumer or informed citizenwhich includes being able to dissect and make sense of statistical information designed for the general publicas well as content expectations around facility with accurate data visualizations. Moreover, this is a common topic appearing in tertiary introductory statistics courses, as well as courses on quantitative reasoning. A 22-page overview of health misinformation and resources to stop it. We apologize. Bad Infographics: The Worst Infographics of 2020 - Venngage This misleading data example is also referred to as data dredging (and related to flawed correlations). In critical scenarios such as a global pandemic, this becomes even more important as misinformation can lead to a higher spread and more deaths. The cases start growing rapidly, but since March 26, the growth seems to slow down and come closer to the top of the curve. Our guide included some misleading examples and illustrations of data, several of which come from the Reddit thread for misleading visual statistics. Root Cause Analysis and Medical Error Prevention If you really want to make a shocking statement, make sure you only include part of the data. Intermediate data points should also be identified and context is given if it would add value to the information presented. Although the hope would be that students recognize the misleading horizontal axis, it is important to point attention directly to it so that students begin to learn to dissect such visualizations by being critical of scalinga common point of intentional or unintentional misrepresentation of dataas they work toward becoming critical consumers. What is a conclusion you could draw from this plot that would not make much sense (i.e., pushing them to make the causation error)? Look at the About Us page on the website to see if you can trust the source. 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.