How to Lie With a Graph

Which country grew fastest?

The Gotham Daily News published a report on international economic growth. Take a look at the chart — what do you notice? Hold that thought.

Build your own misleading graph

You'll get a real dataset and a tool to build charts with. Your challenge: make the data look as dramatic as possible, then as flat as possible — using only legitimate choices.

The tricks behind the picture

Now that you've manipulated a graph yourself, here's the formal vocabulary: truncated axes, inconsistent scales, cherry-picked time windows, and how to spot each one.

Six graphs to interrogate

For each of six real graphs from news sources and political ads: identify the potential manipulation, sketch what an honest version would look like, and write one sentence describing what the data actually shows.

Bring one in from the wild

Find a graph in a news article, an ad, or on social media. Share it with a partner: is it honest? What questions would you ask the person who made it?

The honest and dishonest report

Pick a topic you care about, find two graphs about it from different sources, and write a short analysis: what is each one showing, how do they differ, and which — if either — do you trust more?