Deceptive Statistics

There are examples of deceptive statistics everywhere - visual data presentations (charts/graphs)—from magazines to newspaper articles. Locate a particularly outrageous chart/graph and interview people in your company about the message they interpret from this example. Ask them the purpose of the statistics/research--chart/graph, the strengths and weaknesses of the chart/graph and if are they convinced or suspicious of its findings. What would they recommend to make the results more credible (if anything). Make an audio or video clip of your interview and upload it to this cite. Be sure to include a picture of the graph in the discussion forum.

The deceptive statistics chart that was used to conduct my interview is one from the Obama Administration after he took office. My interviewee explained to me that the purpose of this chart was to show the American people the decrease in the nation’s unemployment rate from when President Obama took office up until 2010. My interviewee felt that the strength of this chart was its visual graphics that showed the significant decrease in unemployment from 2008 to 2010. Based on looking at the chart, my interviewee felt that the information presented was very convincible and nothing needed to be changed to make the data more credible.