Thread by @RyanMcCready1

📊 Lately, graphs are being used to skew data & spin narratives like never before.

👩‍💻Especially on social media.

📉All it takes is a single graph from a less-than-reputable source, to spread a false narrative.

⬇️ Let's take a look at the most common misleading graphs now. ⬇️

1️⃣ Omitting the Baseline
In most cases, the baseline for a graph is 0.

But writers can skew how data is perceived by making the baseline a different number.

This is also known as a “truncated graph”.

2️⃣ Manipulating the Y-Axis

Expanding or compressing the scale of a graph can make changes in data seem more or less significant than they actually are.

This misleading tactic is basically the opposite of omitting the baseline.

3️⃣ Cherry Picking Data

Writers may only include certain data points on their graphs to reinforce their narratives or create a false narrative.

When only a certain chunk of data is included in a visual is also called improper extraction.

4️⃣ Using the Wrong Graph

The type of graph you use should depend on the type of data you want to visualize.

Using the wrong type of graph can skew the data & people will sometimes use the wrong type of graph on purpose to mislead.

5️⃣Going Against Conventions

Over time, we have developed standards for how data is visualized.

Flipping those conventions can make a graph confusing or misleading to readers.

Need some more examples?

We have collected a ton of real-world examples from every industry here: venngage.com/blog/misleadin…