Liars and Figures
My dad had a favorite expression –
“Figures sometimes lie and liars sometimes figure.”
The truth of this expression was reinforced last week when U.S. Congressman Jason Chaffetz used a graph in a hearing on Planned Parenthood funding. This graph was prepared by the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life. According to one expert in the field of information visualization: “The graph was misleading and intentionally so.”
In other words, the graph was a lie.
Occupational safety and health professionals are increasingly being asked to develop and use indicators to track OH&S performance. They are seeking ways of communicating information to busy managers who often have limited attention spans. Charts and graphs are a natural solution for communicating complex information quickly. Visual representations are particularly good at “simplifying” complex information. With the advent of new software and the growth in popularity of social media sites, graphing is easy and sharing visual information is a breeze.
Unfortunately, most simplifications of data leave out information that may be important. The goal in creating any visual representation of data needs to be to create something that is useful – without creating something that is misleading. There can be a fine line between helpful representations and misleading ones. To quote George Box: “All models are wrong; some models are useful.”
In all codes of ethics, the intentional distortion of the truth is unethical. OH&S professionals need to be careful when creating charts and graphs that they are accurate representations of the truth.
Related Resources:
My Dad’s quote is a variation of the quote – “Figures Don’t Lie, But Liars Do Figure.” (I like my Dad’s version better, since numbers can lie if they are generated inappropriately.) For more on where this expression came from, go to http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/15/liars-figure/
An analysis of the chart used by Congressman Chaffetz by Politifact concluded that the graph was ““an egregious example of using a chart to mislead.” For their analysis and a reconstruction of what the graph should have looked like if it was prepared accurately, go to http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/01/jason-chaffetz/chart-shown-planned-parenthood-hearing-misleading-/
For more on the origins of the quote “All models are wrong; some models are useful”, check out the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong
My favorite book on this topic is an inexpensive paperback bestseller, How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff.
