Can you read graphs? Because I can't.

Up to 60% of people struggle with the skills needed to read graphs accurately, are you one of them? In this video, Sabrina explores her struggles with graph reading and points out 5 pitfalls of graph literacy so you can avoid misunderstanding the next graph you see. This video wouldn't be possible without the book "How Charts Lie" by Alberto Cairo.

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SOCIAL MEDIA
Sabrina
Melissa
Taha

CREDITS
Produced by Sabrina Cruz

MUSIC

RECOMMENDED READING
How Charts Lie by Alberto Cairo
Americans struggle with Graphs by Eli Holder

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 A Horrifying Misunderstanding
01:11 One (1) Big Problemo
01:49 Sabrina Buys ANOTHER Book
02:57 Basically a Book Report
05:00 I Made a Mistake. Cue Apology Video Tears.
06:43 KiwiCo Ad Read

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Welcome to the joke under the fold! Get ready for this "graphic" pun.

What do you call an unexpected wiggle on a straight graph?
A plot twist.

Leave a comment with the word PLOT to let me know you were here ;-)

[answerinprogress]

*Do you have a favourite kind of graph?* I know this is a nerdy question but if you're watching this video, you're probably a nerd. Personally, I think violin plots are the perfect mixture of hilarious and beautiful (with the right colour palette).

[dirtwagon]

"If you torture the data long enough, it'll confess to anything"

[anna_alexandra]

It made me ridiculously happy that I immediately knew what was wrong with the graph. Forth year of doing my PhD... Yay for me...

[eynaalaan]

MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO REFFRENCE THE "LOOK AT THIS GRAPH" VINE

[joshdarragh]

READ THE AXIS PEOPLE!!! The amount of times I see a biased article with a graph showing how vastly different to things are, the y axis will have a range of like 2 percent, meaning the difference is insignificant in most cases.

[Nossairito]

I mean if graphs are literature then XKCD's probably the closest thing we have to fan fiction

[mattbabineau]

"Four years and an expensive piece of paper saying, 'I studied numbers.'" I also majored in math in college and I felt this SO HARD.

[biophile]

I wish I knew the source for this but I learned this when I was working on my bachelors degree in biology 🧬: “If you torture the data they will confess to anything.”

[NinjaWatermelon]

My guess is that yes, there are likely more movies being made, but it's also selection effect exaggerating it. Big blockbusters from 2020 or 1950 are both definitely going to have an IMDB page, but there aren't that many of them, so it's the lower tier movies that make up the bulk of the film's listed by volume. A local indie film from the 50's might be lost to history or just have no one that cares enough to make a IMDB page for it, but if the same indie film is made today, it is much more likely to end up on IMBD as there will be a trailer in YouTube, a website, and the director and crew will want their credits etc.

[AidaSaidSo]

Am disappointed with the lack of clowns...

Joking aside, I always think of how often people maliciously skew the Y axis to force narratives or leave out pieces of the puzzle to drive their views. But on a less intentional or malicious route, I still end up making bad graphs at work from time to time, especially if I'm going in there with no idea of what I am trying to ask of the data. Graphs in a way tell stories and we have to be very careful with how to tell that story in a clear & concise way that also remains honest and true.

[Roll]

I'm doing my PhD in a quantitative field. I often feel like I'm getting a PhD in creating/reading graphs. It's difficult for everyone, especially because so many graphs are poorly done.

[littledewdroplets]

"Can you make graph fanfiction?" Well I've seen Fanfiction made about pieces of Tetris so.... yeah. It's probably out there

[mikaxxy]

I'm realizing all my time spent on r/dataisbeautiful actually helped me develop a valuable life skill. The first thing I thought when seeing the halloween move graph was "probably they just started making a ton of movies during that period. This graph should be normalized in relation to movies released per year". But possibly me thinking that this quickly also had to do with the context this information was provided in, yet I feel like I did learn something good on reddit for once.

[shioma]

i'm reading Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World currently, this vid came in on time

[IsomerMashups]

As soon as you put up that graph, I immediately jumped to, "Well, of course. We're making multiple times the amount of movies we used to."

Statistics, probability, and data visualization should be mandatory courses.

[hansolochewbacca]

I feel like some world leaders/governments/national broadcasters need to watch this video... both for their own education and to remember that the graph literacy of their audience isn't a given.

[AntonWongVideo]

6:09 "There's a metaphor in there. That's probably not even a metaphor"
Well, you DID say you studied numbers, not words!

[oaxis]

Confirmation bias gets everyone
Even smart ones

It’s a normal thing human mind does all the time
Just be self aware enough to notice it and you’ll be fine

[minater]

With how high quality and well-made your videos are I'm surprised how few views this has for the time it's been up... I'd think a lot more people would want to come and watch these when they come out. Thanks for this - somehow you make this kind of complex intricacy of the mind a simple easy to understand video and I'm all for it :D

[rooky]

The movie thing made me think of how in the end, most demographic statistical data sorted by region is really just a population map.