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Misrepresentation



Data Science in a Box

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Causality

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Alice Park. Exercise Can Lower Risk of Some Cancers By 20%. Time Magazine. 16 May 2016.

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Melissa Healy. Exercising drives down risk for 13 cancers, research shows .
Los Angeles Times. 16 May 2016.

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Original study

Moore, Steven C., et al. "Association of leisure-time physical activity with risk of 26 types of cancer in 1.44 million adults." JAMA internal medicine 176.6 (2016): 816-825.

  • Volunteers were asked about their physical activity level over the preceding year.
  • Half exercised less than about 150 minutes per week, half exercised more.
  • Compared to the bottom 10% of exercisers, the top 10% had lower rates of esophageal, liver, lung, endometrial, colon, and breast cancer.
  • Researchers found no association between exercising and 13 other cancers (e.g. pancreatic, ovarian, and brain).

Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West. Calling Bullshit: The art of skepticism in a data-driven world.
Random House, 2020.
Sharon Begley. "Does exercise prevent cancer?". StatNews. 16 May 2016.

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Axes and scale

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What is the difference between these two pictures? Which presents a better way to represent these data?

Christopher Ingraham. "You’ve been reading charts wrong. Here’s how a pro does it.".
The Washington Post. 14 October 2019.

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What is wrong with this picture? How would you correct it?

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What is wrong with this picture? How would you correct it?

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Graph detective

Lucy D'Agostino McGowan. Graph detective. Live Free or Dichotomize. 17 May 2020.

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Maps and areas

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Do you recognize this map? What does it show?

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Do you recognize this map? What does it show?

Lazaro Gamio. "Election maps are telling you big lies about small things".
The Washington Post. 1 Nov 2016.

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Alberto Cairo. Visual Trumpery talk.

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Alberto Cairo. Visual Trumpery talk.

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Alberto Cairo. Visual Trumpery talk.

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Visualising uncertainty

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On December 19, 2014, the front page of Spanish national newspaper El País read "Catalan public opinion swings toward 'no' for independence, says survey".

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Further reading

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How Charts Lie
Getting Smarter about Visual Information

by Alberto Cairo

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Calling Bullshit
The Art of Skepticism in a
Data-Driven World

by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West

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Causality

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