Misleading graphs
There are a number of ways that graphs can be manipulated in order to present a chosen point of view.
Look at the following graphs and work out how the writer has misinterpreted the graph, or how the graph has been presented in a misleading way.
Question
What is misleading about this graph and statement?
There are twice as many dogs in the UK as there are cats.
Although the bar for the number of dogs is twice the size of the cats, this does not mean there is double the amount of dogs. Looking closely at the scale, we see it does not start at 0. There are 9 million dogs and approximately 7.8 million cats – definitely not half the amount.
Question
What is misleading about this graph and statement?
Global warming warning! The ice caps are melting and rainfall is increasing. It is set to continue to rise from now on.
The graph only shows a section of one year. You would expect average rainfall to increase from the summer to the winter. It does not represent a general trend.
Question
What is misleading about this graph and statement?
Diesel is the most popular fuel.
At first glance it appears as though diesel has the largest portion and 45% is the highest percentage. Looking more closely we see that the percentages add up to 120%. Therefore, we cannot gain any information from this pie chart as it clearly does not represent the data accurately.
