A book by Edward R. Tufte
In the chapter titled "Graphic Integrity", in the book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" written by Edward R. Tufte, he goes on to explain and breaks down the way people can use graphs, graphic design, and information design to make a person feel or believe something is happening in a certain manner. It is to each is own to judge yourself and your ethics. Would it be fair to use a certain style graph to explain your motives if you know that it will be better understood? or would it be a way of getting what you want? This can surely be a hard decision to make for someone trying to get their point across and battling with their ethical believes.
It is for this reason that some people have labeled graphs as the visual or graphical "lie". It is hard to know the motives of the person trying to explain themselves by using graphs. However, there are ways to educate yourself and try to figure out when someone is trying to manipulate you. By taking the graph you are being ask to view and breaking it down to numbers, it can help you determine what are the intentions of the graph developer. If they where to place two images side-by-side and tell you they are the same. In turn, if you break down the images by numbers you can distinguish the differences. You might be able to realize that image A size is 3.5', while image B is only 2.75'. This difference can be that the graph developer is trying to show you something, more to his point of view, in image A then there is to image B.
Overall it is always going to be about the information and what you feel you get out of it. Try to make sure you pay attention and don't ignore the signs that might be right in-front of you.
Jason Lopez
In Class Book Notes
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