Misrepresentation

Data science ethics

Data Science with R

Overview

Misrepresenting data science results

Some common ways people do this, either intentionally or unintentionally, include:

• Claiming causality where it’s not in the scope of inference of the underlying study

• Distorting axes and scales to make the data tell a different story

• Visualizing spatial areas instead of human density for issues that depend on and affect humans

• Omitting uncertainty in reporting

Causality

TIME coverage

How plausible is the statement in the title of this article?

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

LA Times coverage

What does “research shows” mean?

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

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.

Axes and scales

Tax cuts

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.

Cost of gas

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

Cost of gas

COVID in GA

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

Georgia Department of Public Health. 11 May 2020.

COVID in GA

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

PP services

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

Timothy B. Lee. Whatever you think of Planned Parenthood, this is a terrible and dishonest chart. Vox. 29 September 2019.

PP services

Maps and areas

Voting map

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.

Two alternate tales

Alberto Cairo. Visual Trumpery talk.

Voting percentages

Alberto Cairo. Visual Trumpery talk.

Voting percentages

Alberto Cairo. Visual Trumpery talk.

Uncertainty

Catalan independence

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

Alberto Cairo. The truthful art: Data, charts, and maps for communication. New Riders, 2016.

Catalan independence

Alberto Cairo. “Uncertainty and Graphicacy: How Should Statisticians Journalists and Designers Reveal Uncertainty in Graphics for Public Consumption?”, Power from Statistics: Data Information and Knowledge, 2017.

Further reading

How Charts Lie

How Charts Lie

Getting Smarter about Visual Information

by Alberto Cairo

Calling Bullshit

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

by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West