Graphs And Statistics Are Often Used To Persuade. Advertisers And

By: ME

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Graphs and statistics are often used to persuade. Advertisers and others may accidentally or intentionally present information in a misleading way.

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Art is often used to make a graph more interesting, but it can often distort the data.

The heights of the sails are used to show the number of each type of boat that was sold, but because they are different sizes it throws of the graph data.

It is misleading because the graph doesn’t start at zero. Therefore, it seams that Overachievers Elementary had 3x’s the average score as Dullsville Elementary when they really only averaged 4 points higher.

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A small business has 5 employees with the following salaries: $90,000 (owner), $18,000, $22,000, $20,000, $23,000. The owner places an ad that reads: “Help wanted- average salary $34,600” Although the average salary is $34,600, only one person makes over $23,000. It is not likely that a new employee would be hired at a salary of $34,600

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A market researcher randomly selects 8 people to focus-test three brands, labeled A, B and C. Of these, 4 chose brand A, 2 chose brand B and to chose brand C. --- An ad for brand A states: “Preferred 2 to 1 over leading brands!” The sample size is to small. Twice as many people chose brand A, but the difference between 2 and 4 people is not meaningful.