Thread by @MForstater

There is a lot of "manufacturing of consent" in @YouGov 's presentation of the data on their recent survey.

First there is the title "trangender rights"

The whole point is there is a public debate about whether these are rights and/ or should be rights.

Secondly is the colour coding. Green and pink are not just agree/disagree answers to the questions as they are asked.

For example here is the question as it was asked.

And here is the question as presented in the graphic.

Green means more people said should not have to obtain doctors certificate

Pink means more people said should have to.

There is no reason for this other than to use the colour coding to signal the "right" answer

Then there is the way the demographic and political groups are organised across the top.

Its not sexes, then ages, then politics as would be the basic logic, but mixed together and put in order according to the proportions in each group giving the "right" answer

So you read it across from the left hand side and it feels like a bar chart showing broad support for all but 3 of the propositions

But this is not a bar chart because the blobs are not additive (because each individual is counted several times according to age, sex & politics)

Then there is the business with the pale green ticks

Marking where <50% say yes to a proposition about consent with a green tick is misleading

(e.g. women being forced to share changing rooms w males and pretend they don't perceive them as male )

https://twitter.com/MForstater/status/1284074090228260864

This is what it looks like if the <50% agreement is marked more clearly

They do publish the data & it tells a different story from the summary pic

One interesting thing is the trend from the 2018 to 2020 w fewer people giving the "right" answer

(a testament to the hard work of the women who have made the debate happen)

docs.cdn.yougov.com/ai3h3xvf7o/Tra…