Methods of data presentation

269 Views Asked by At

A friend of mine was talking about how method of data presentation can influence people's interpretation of the data, and I was wondering how much truth there is to it. The specific example was a controversial diagram, showing the difference in IQ scores between Black and White Americans as two separated bell curves, featured in 'The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life'. The difference looks large but having seen the data on a scatter plot, it's hardly noticeable. Ignoring the moral issues of the example, does anyone know anything about how choice of data presentation may seem to exaggerate results/ is there any research on the subject?