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>It seems there is always a visualization you can use to show the story you are trying to tell, almost like "p-hacking", but "chart searching." Is there a visu

>It seems there is always a visualization you can use to show the story you are trying to tell, almost like "p-hacking", but "chart searching." Is there a visualization that tells the story that deaths due to covid weren't a big issue? The only way(other than just making up numbers) I have seen this done is to look at the last few months and use the reporting lag to mislead people into thinking there were fewer deaths than past years.

taeric 5y ago
Fair. There are some stories that can't be told with the data anymore. That said, I haven't seen that one attempted. Unless it is to get and show good non uniform the risk involved is. The main question/story seems to be around just how preventable this was. And on that one, stories are all over the place.
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PennRobotics 5y ago
Three such visualizations: data that are confusing to the layperson, and data that minimize personal danger, and data that bend the brain's ability to comprehend. A plot of Case Fatality Rate would go down over time as the number of cases goes up. A somewhat related, slightly confusing example is cumulative deaths on a log plot. A handful of people would look at the line without much focus on the axes or title. A plot of Covid deaths by age group could make it more likely that young people engage in riskier activities, since it downplays the risk for "most" people---well, except someone else's grandparents who were gonna die soon anyway. And, in the WTF category: https://images.theconversation.com/files/330304/original/file-20200424-163098-1myrevx.png https://images.theconversation.com/files/330304/original/fil...
UncleMeat 5y ago
> Is there a visualization that tells the story that deaths due to covid weren't a big issue? Yes, sort of. There was a great paper in CHI this year discussing how heterodox communities use visualizations (https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3411764.3445211 https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3411764.3445211). The rough conclusion is that visualizations do not just empower people to express the truth but are also used in skilled ways by heterodox communities.

taeric 5y ago

Fair. There are some stories that can't be told with the data anymore. That said, I haven't seen that one attempted. Unless it is to get and show good non uniform the risk involved is. The main question/story seems to be around just how preventable this was. And on that one, stories are all over the place.

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PennRobotics 5y ago

Three such visualizations: data that are confusing to the layperson, and data that minimize personal danger, and data that bend the brain's ability to comprehend. A plot of Case Fatality Rate would go down over time as the number of cases goes up. A somewhat related, slightly confusing example is cumulative deaths on a log plot. A handful of people would look at the line without much focus on the axes or title. A plot of Covid deaths by age group could make it more likely that young people engage in riskier activities, since it downplays the risk for "most" people---well, except someone else's grandparents who were gonna die soon anyway. And, in the WTF category: https://images.theconversation.com/files/330304/original/file-20200424-163098-1myrevx.png https://images.theconversation.com/files/330304/original/fil...

UncleMeat 5y ago

> Is there a visualization that tells the story that deaths due to covid weren't a big issue? Yes, sort of. There was a great paper in CHI this year discussing how heterodox communities use visualizations (https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3411764.3445211 https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3411764.3445211). The rough conclusion is that visualizations do not just empower people to express the truth but are also used in skilled ways by heterodox communities.