Are Pie Charts Really So Bad? An Experiment on Data Visualization

• Activity Number: 487
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Michael Posner* and Joseph Reiter
• Companies: Villanova University and Villanova University
• Keywords: Data Visualization ; Graphical Displays ; Experiment ; Statistics Education Reseach

Abstract

Data visualization and graphical displays are part of almost every introductory course. Many of us have heard colleagues claim that pie charts are useless, 3-d bar charts are distracting, and people can't make good inferences with too many distractors. This presentation summarizes findings from a study that randomly assigned related graphs to subjects and asks them to read the graph and make a decision based on the information provided. Both accuracy and speed are compared between the graphs. The concepts covered in the graphs are based on the works of statisticians and psychologists on effective graphics.