How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information

by Alberto Cairo

A leading data visualization expert explores the negative―and positive―influences that charts have on our perception of truth. Today, public conversations are increasingly driven by numbers. While charts, infographics, and diagrams can make us smarter, they can also deceive―intentionally or unintentionally. To be informed citizens, we must all be able to decode and use the visual information that politicians, journalists, and even our employers present us with each day. Demystifying an essential new literacy for our data-driven world, How Charts Lie examines contemporary examples ranging from election result infographics to global GDP maps and box office record charts, as well as an updated afterword on the graphics of the COVID-19 pandemic. 175 illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Business, Design, Psychology, Mathematics, Economics

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2019

About the author

Alberto Cairo is the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communication of the University of Miami. The author of several textbooks, he consults with companies and institutions like Google and the Congressional Budget Office on visualizations. He lives in Miami, Florida.

Reviews

[Anbu Manoharan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read, even when I knew part of what was discussed.

He recommends a few books and hopefully I get to read some of them. I marked some of them as want-to-read, but I also have the habit of keeping the list updated and thereby removing and losing all these suggestions.

Books about reasoning:
1. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts - Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson.
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
2. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion - Jonathan Haidt
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
3. The Enigma of Reason - Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber
The Enigma of Reason

Books about numeracy:
1. Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks and Big Pharma Flacks - Ben Goldacre
Bad Science
2. Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data - Charles Wheelan
Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data
3. How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking - Jordan Ellenberg.
How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
4. The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail- But Some Don't - Nate Silver
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't

Books about charts:
1. Visual Revelations:Graphical Tales of Fate and Deception From Napolean Bonaparte to Ross Perot - Howard Wainer
Visual Revelations: Graphical Tales of Fate and Deception from Napoleon Bonaparte to Ross Perot
2. Design for Information: An Introduction to the Histories, Theories and Best Practices behind Effective Information Visualizations - Isabel Meirelles.
Design for Information: An Introduction to the Histories, Theories, and Best Practices Behind Effective Information Visualizations
3. Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals. - Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic.
Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals
4. How to Lie with Maps - Mark Monmonier.
How to Lie with Maps
5. Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten - Stephen Few
Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten

Books about the ethics of data:
1. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy - Cathy O'Niel.
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
2. Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World - Meredith Broussard.
Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World
3. Automating inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor - Virginia Eubanks.
Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads giveaways. It’s a fun and easy to read book

[Deniz Cem Önduygu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book covering many practical and theoretical layers of data/information visualization and journalism. The dozens of examples come from a wide variety of topics like US elections, global development, climate change, movie industry, hurricanes, public health, evolutionary history, among others, all presented within a nice editorial design using a spot color for charts which makes for a sweet visual experience throughout. Yes, you learn a lot about how you should read/design charts and what makes them successful with these examples, but the rich discussions on the wider implications (about what to expect and what not to expect from charts; about living in a period where data and charts are used more than ever for propaganda and everyone "publishes" charts on social media, etc.) carry How Charts Lie beyond being just a technical dos/don'ts book. Everyone who is creating or consuming charts – yes, that means everybody – should read it.

[Christopher Obert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading this book but when I did, it was very disappointing. The book and charts were hard to read (bad choice of colors, sizes and layout). This was a surprise since the book is about how to make charts easier to read and help you understand them. With so many charts available to use as examples (science, business, civics, sports, economy, history, just to name a few) you would have thought that where would have been a wide range displayed in the book. There were not! The political bias did not help either. If you are really interested in charts and visual information read Edward R. Tufte’s books.

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Albert Cairo is a professor of visual journalism at the School of Communication at the University of Miami, so naturally he is very passionate about the design of visual information representing data, i.e., charts. In this unique book (which really must be consumed in physical book or Ebook format -- there is somehow also an audiobook format but this seems to defeat the purpose of the book!), Cairo takes us through basic elements of chart design -- from common chart types easily rendered in Excel to more complex infographics and even tropical storm cones of uncertainty -- and gives us insight into how charts can be purposely or accidentally made misleading. Examples include using inappropriate axis scales or zooms on data, selective uses of color shading, and using chart types ill-suited to render the desired information. I think I'm inherently a pretty good chart reader due to my profession and educational training, but I still found this book enjoyable.

My statistics:
Book 158 for 2024
Book 1761 cumulatively

[Rama · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Science doesn't discover truth. What science does well is provide increasingly better approximate explanations of what the truth may be, according to available evidence.

If that evidence changes, the explanations -either journalistic or scientific--should change accordingly: Beware those who never change their views despite acknowledging that their previous views were driven by incomplete or faulty data.”

Took an excruciatingly long time to finish but maybe I need to go back to fiction for a second. Great key concepts, 10/10 visuals. I see where other reviewers were going with the “political agenda” thing, but think it served as an excellent example of when bad graphs cause mass detriment and aid in adding credibility to harmful propaganda- author’s warning was then well heeded. Not jargon-heavy and a good book for beginners. Would recommend!

[Antoine Letarte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a math teacher, books about charts and statistics are always appealing to me. They help me make my lessons clearer and inspire me to help my students developping their critical thinking. New examples, new approaches are always welcomed.

What about this one? It was short and sweet. In a good way and a bad way. On the good side, it was very well written. Examples are good, explanations clear, argument well structured; it gets to the essential in a very efficient way. A fast read. On the less good side, it was a bit to short. I would have liked to see more examples, maybe some that show the very negative effects of badly designed charts in the public conversation.

In some examples, more details or lengthier discussion would have been appreciated. In particular, the examples on victims of crimes (pp. 87 to 93) surely could be better explained. There is something important to be said about this example but, in my opinion, it's not clearly explained. Similarly, the example of examples, the chart chosen to explain how to read charts (pp. 47 to 50) should be better explained. To the very attentive reader, two points of data require an explanation (probably even more needed for non-american readers). Between the 200 and 300 days mark, we see two points indicating that seats in a special election have turned from republican to democrat while the district voted more Republican by a margin of more than 15 points. To me, not explaining these points in an example illustrating the importance of a careful reading of chart is a mistake.

On a more minor note, the editing and printing of the book was not flawless [Note: I had preordered the book a long time in advance, so I may have got a piece of the very first prints. Maybe this was corrected in later prints]. In a few places, charts were not correctly printed. The chart at page 24 made me scratch my head for a while until I realized that some shading was missing. Be sure to check the author's correction page to be aware of these bugs. Also, as much as I appreciate books that don't cost a lot, I think this book suffers from being printed in only two colors (red and black). Color is an essential way of making a well designed charts and the lack of it surely hinders the presentation of some charts that are presented in the book and must have taken out a wide range of examples from the author's playbook. I'm sure a color printing would have rendered this book too pricy for most people and that's why it's presented that way. A blog is clearly superior when discussing individual examples.

All in all, I liked this book and would recommend it to anyone who would like to have an introductory lesson on the importance of charts and data in the world. To be perfect, this book would have needed more examples and a color printing. I still wish I was tasked to teach a course in which I could examine the content of this book and engage in critical thinking with my students. And I'm sure it would work.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine introduction to data visualization that provides good examples from recent politics and topics that tend to become partisan quickly, such as immigration, climate change, crime, economics, and global demographics. The focus is not that of a textbook but more of a book that provides examples of good and bad charts and then shows how such charts can arise and how they can mislead. What is especially useful about the book is its focus on constructing quality charts and assuming good intentions regarding even misleading charts. These charts and figures are hard to create and it is good to give the benefit of the doubt where possible. People are not always trying to mislead.

The logic of the book focuses on principles for the construction of quality and defensible charts. The failure to construct quality charts leads to charts that mislead rather than inform. For someone wishing to mislead or manipulate, then the principles of solid construction can quickly be turned into their opposites which turns informative charts into propaganda. The most useful message of the book to me was to take time to understand charts and assess their reliability as well as that of their creators. I work with charts and data regularly and there is a temptation to rush. But as Professor Cairo note, everybody makes mistakes.

There is an entire literature on lying with maps, statistics, charts, and the like. This is a good addition to that literature. Cairo also provides plenty of additional references for those wishing to read up further on his arguments and examples.

[Eileen Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick, easy read. Super useful for both consumers and creators of data visualizations!

[James Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alberto does a great job of walking you both intentional and unintentional ways that visuals are presented and can be misleading. I strongly recommend this book and it is written in a way that everyone can understand it. No data/stats background is needed.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really effective, easy-to-read book on data literacy - highly recommended for anyone interested in how to read charts more intelligently, decipher bad ones, develop strong visualizations, or know what to share on social media. Alberto Cairo entertainingly distills insights from other thinkers on data visualization, such as Cathy O’Neil, Nate Silver, and Edward Tufte. He even references Jonathan Haight, delving into how confirmation bias and motivated reasoning can impact how we read charts. Tons of contemporary examples serve as illustrations throughout the book, from multi-disciplinary areas - politics, economics, media, demographics, weather, movies, and COVID-19. A few quotes from “How Charts Lie”:

“Don’t read too much into a chart - particularly if you’re reading what you like to read.”

“Charts can be instruments for either reasoning or rationalization. We humans are more inclined to the latter than the former. We take the evidence that charts make visible and - particularly if we have a belief about the topic the chart is about - we try to twist it to fit our worldview, rather than pondering that evidence and using it to adjust our worldview accordingly.”

“A chart may lie because:
- It’s poorly designed.
- It uses the wrong data.
- It shows an inappropriate amount of data (either too little or too much).
- It conceals or confuses uncertainty.
- It suggests misleading patterns.
- It panders to our expectations or prejudices.”

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.

I really liked this book. While it is easy to see it's value considering the present state of the U.S. union, I was glad to read a rather balanced treatment of the situation. The style of presentation isn't pretentious in any way, quite simple and clear in a manner that makes it easy for regular people to absorb the key points of the book. Its usefulness extends beyond politics, obviously. Hopefully, enough people get to read this book and save themselves the pain of being led astray by unscrupulous personalities festering around us today.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounding up for succinctness. Very insightful! I think more than ever when we see charts coming our way every way we turn, it's time we educate ourselves about how to read graphs accurately, and how to spot information that should make us wary. The first 2 chapters might be too elementary for some folks - how charts are built (legends, titles, axis, etc) and how charts lie with dubious data (like not starting at 0 for y-axis) but the rest of the chapters were fascinating. I learned that I had been reading the hurricane cone of uncertainty incorrectly and feel better educated in general.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Data and charts often are seen as the ultimate proof in any conversation. But as Cairo writes in this book, visualization can be used - purposely or not - in misleading ways. Documenting a number of examples and showing better ways to communicate with data, Cairo does a good job giving readers skills to understand and question visualizations. Ultimately, he writes, charts can be valuable if the right conditions are met, they should enhance conversation and invite new questions, and the chart shows what it shows and nothing else.

Given the number of visualizations that pop up on social media and are meant to be seen as gospel, knowing how to skeptically read these charts is critical.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you liked Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, then you will like How Charts Lie even more.

The chapters are divided into easily digestible patterns. Although it is important information, it is written with everyday examples. This book should be required reading for college students or even high school students. I love how it enables us to digest scientific information so we can make decisions for ourselves especially in the age of the internet.

[Robert Kosara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book, everyone should read it. More detailed review on my blog soon 😉

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot recast from other books, but it's clear, readable, has good examples, and a great explanation of the ecological fallacy.

[Charlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information: advise against the audiobook unless you have a print copy to reference the charts. Makes you wonder why there's an audiobook version of an explanation of a visual medium, really.

[Walt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alberto Cairo has a strong pedigree of expertise in visual journalism. He clearly has a keen intellect and a solid grasp of the material. This short book contains good information; but it quickly overwhelms the reader. The organization and writing style bothered me more than the content intrigued me. I became fixated on his self-deprecating humor which came off as being overly insincere and his attempt to organize the book like a conversation.

Whenever Cairo writes "....it took me several times to read and digest this...." you know it is going to be hard to digest. The Introduction and first chapter - how charts work - remind me of gumbo or any food that includes leftovers thrown together and served. The potential is there; but the sheer volume of data overloaded this reader. What is more, by dividing a 200-page book into six chapters, it becomes tricky for the reader to see how the examples connect to one-another.

1) How charts work, 2) how charts lie by being poorly designed, 3) how charts lie by displaying dubious data, 4) how charts lie by displaying insufficient data, 5) how charts lie by concealing or confusing uncertainty, 6) how charts lie by suggesting misleading patterns. These all sound like excellent lecture topics. I suspect Cairo is a good lecturer. He has the same problem as James Burke (an exceptional lecturer and television personality) who writes confusing and awkward books. Cairo presents examples of charts from many different areas - economics, business, sports, healthcare, and of course, politics. These are good examples, although they can be difficult to read and synthesize. His favorite chart - by Florence Nightingale - is indecipherable to this reader due to content, writing, and the small reproduction in this book. The rapid transition from one example to another means that all of them blend together.

The writing style drove me bonkers. Academics who write in a conversational tone rarely make a good impression. Academics who lay on the self-deprecating humor rarely make a good impression. Academics who blend them together and transition to pedigree (I have 50,000 followers on Twitter) rarely make a good impression. The informality of the book made it difficult to follow and was a big distraction when trying to read about complex ideas in a complex subject. Key takeaways like "a chart only shows you what it shows you," are both profound and irritating.

All that criticism aside, I learned some new things. The book boils down to information literacy. I cannot teach student that a chart only shows you what it shows you. I need to give them something more concrete. Cairo has a fascinating discussion on when to use charts starting at zero. As a rule of thumb, charts that do not start at zero are likely hiding something. But....Cairo argues that is not always the case. The few rules of thumb I have kept for years he breaks down. The analysis and discussion is good; but it weakens general rules of information literacy. It all comes down to the fact that I now feel less confident teaching information literacy after reading this book.

[Erik Brahemark Danielsen]

Om man har 3-4 timmar att döda rekommenderar jag verkligen den här boken. Det känns som att man direkt blir smartare av att ha läst den, för att man får lite bättre förståelse för information, men framförallt misinformation.

Här är ett stycke jag tyckte om.

The arguments we use when we rationalize are rarely universally valid, coherent, and detailed. You can put yourself to the test. Try to explain to someone who disagrees with you on something why you believe what you believe. As much as you can, avoid arguments from authority ('This book, author, scientist, thinker - or TV anchor - said that . . .') or appeals to your values ('I'm a leftist liberal, so . . .')

Instead, lay out your case step by step, being careful to attach each link of your reasoning chain to the preceding and subsequent ones. You'll soon realize how unstable the scaffolding sustaining even our deepest and dearest beliefs is. It's a humbling experience, and it makes you realize that we should all lose our fear of admitting 'I don't know.' Most of the time, we really don't.

[Rory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite a lovely read. While the ideas presented aren't new--especially for how many math and statistics books I go through-- the structure and examples that Cairo chose were wonderful. I love that the undercurrent here is entirely on trying to make all humans more informed consumers of the media. All in all, this was a lovely read that I highly recommend.

And from the perspective of a math teacher...now I really want to make students write me papers where they purposefully twist and manipulate data and charts to prove points...

[Paul Laughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not just a book to help analysts not lie. It’s as much to help leaders avoid being deceived.

Those familiar with the field of Data Visualisation will already know Alberto’s name from either his presentations or his past books “The Truthful Art” & “The Functional Art”.

Alberto is the Knight Chair of Visual Journalism at the University of Miami. How cool a job title is that? With a background in journalism, in this book, he turns his attention to the layperson.

During a time when politicians & social media have been seen to share deceptive statistics and data visualisations, this book is a welcome defence. In this very accessible short book (under 200 pages excluding appendices) any leader can learn to have a better critical eye when presented with charts.

We need to improve our Graphicacy
One would be surprised to meet a senior commercial leader who struggled with their numeracy or literacy. Yet we still accept leaders who can’t really grasp what charts & other graphics mean, nor how to critique them.

Through an introduction packed with timely political examples (albeit all US-based), Alberto makes clear the scale of the problem. From all sides of political debate, he shares examples of charts that lie. Ones that misrepresent the actual data or statistics in different ways.

This book is a plea for all citizens to take the skill of Graphicacy seriously. We live in a society awash with so much data that we rely on analysis & data visualisations to help us make sense of it all. Graphicacy competency is essential if we are not to all be at the mercy of the visualiser.

In printed form, there is also a beautiful simplicity to the way all his charts are shown in only black, white & red (plus the use of saturation to add additional information). It makes for a clear & practical book that walks the reader through all types of basic charts, maps & infographics, many of which will look familiar.

Understanding the component parts & how to read
As someone who trains others in Data Visualisation, I was very impressed by how many basics Alberto covers in his first chapter. Entitled ‘How Charts Work‘, it walks the reader through how to understand and read a graph, map or data visualisation.

Covering a little history of data visualisation, he goes on to explain the component parts:

Scaffolding (titles, legend, scales, bylines)
Content (including use of Visual Encoding)
Annotation layer
Alberto then uses awareness of the broad options for visual encoding data to help the reader read a wide diversity of charts, From scatter plots to bubble charts. From heatmaps to the dreaded pie chart. From line charts to the more advanced connected scatter plot.

Edward Tufte would be pleased to also see the coverage of the power of small multiples. Alberto also goes on to share a great 5 step approach to reading charts. In order, you should look at the…

Title, introduction (or caption) and sources
Measurements, units, scales & legends
Methods of visual encoding
Annotations
A birds-eye view of the whole (to spot patterns/trends/relationships)
Watch out for these ways that charts may lie to you
In the remaining chapters, Alberto brilliantly guides the reader through a number of the different ways that charts can lie. I won’t steal his thunder by sharing too much with you (as I want you to read his book). But he does this without prejudging people’s motives & with a balance that does not favour any political camp.

His chapters explore the following ways that charts can lie to readers:

Charts that lie by being poorly designed
Charts that lie by displaying dubious data
Charts that lie by displaying insufficient data
Charts that lie by concealing or confusing uncertainty
Charts that lie by suggesting misleading patterns
In all 5 chapters, he shares plenty of examples to demonstrate both how this happens & what it can look like in practice. He is honest about his own mistakes, while also sharing a passion for us to all do better.

I’m sure when analysts read this they will pick up the sense of moral obligation to avoid such mistakes & keep their charts as honest as possible. But, Alberto’s very practical book can help not only those designing data visualisations but also those reading or crucially sharing them. His plea for more care before sharing on social media was a conscience pricker for me.

How can you help join the Graphicacy Revolution?
In conclusion, Alberto shares the story of someone who may be a surprising Data Viz heroine to some – Florence Nightingale. Reproducing her famous “Causes of mortality in the armies in the east” chart from the Crimean War, Alberto explains its design.

However, it is his key message is not so much the chart itself, but the ethical example of Nightingale. Faced with the reality of how many lives have been lost due to poor sanitation, she takes the very approach Alberto advocates throughout this book. She checks the data & statistics thoroughly & then clearly shares the truth, even if that makes her look bad.

How can you too become more serious about your responsibility when designing or sharing charts. If you want to improve your graphicacy & protect yourself against being misled by charts – I recommend you read this book. It might just prove to be a public service.

Finally, I should also mention that it’s an enjoyable and immersive read. A book that I read in under 2 weeks without much of an effort.

[Rohit Ghole · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first read on Graphicacy, like Author I too agree everyone needs to be well versed in Graphicacy. Good thing about this book is it covers latest mainstream media charts and how they are flawed, especially the ones pertaining to 2016 Presidential Elections. Author does a good job of letting readers know types of chart(though not all of them, he covers the most common ones), how they can be correctly designed and how poor design, dubious and insufficient data can cause readers to misinterpret them; how they can easily mislead the audience.

I enjoyed sections of reasoning vs rationalization, Nightingales famous wedge chart and how charts are used to support propaganda.

[Grace Gibbon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly interesting and fun to read. I knew most of the principles of this book from school and work but having it articulated was a great reminder especially since this book is focused on consuming charts in the media, a context I am less familiar analyzing. The sections on individual vs aggregate data and hurricanes I especially enjoyed. Think almost anyone could benefit from reading this and society would definitely benefit from it being widely consumed.

[Sof]

Jag visade mig kunna i princip alla statistik- och visualiserings-trick den här boken tog upp, men det är ju inte bokens fel. Och jag måste ge cred för hur pedagogisk och driven boken var!

Snyggt att highlighta exempel från alla politiska och ideologiska kanter. Det hjälpte hans poäng om att alla kan producera dåliga grafer, för att pusha en agenda men också av misstag. 100% en bok jag skulle rekommendera till en släkting om jag kände att vi pratade förbi varandra om fakta och statistik.

[Urban Andersson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice and informative about visual information for a general public.
I could have wished for some more detailed examples in the chapters about misrepresentation about uncertainty and causation

[Courtney Tabor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is clear, accessible, has lots of examples. Written for laypeople rather than typical academic writing. Basically, it’s fine enough at accomplishing its goals.

[Marina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Study material

[Nicolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone having interests in data visualization and how to comprehend their impact on information spreading.

The author clearly masters its subject and goes to great length and with precise examples to explain the many caveats behind the design of charts. While many of his points are well-known or may appear obvious, the book does a good job maintaining its pertinence through thorough analyses of its subject matter.

I thought it didn't overstay its welcome, and the discussion in the conclusion section to be quite powerful in its arguments.

[Wlad · Rating 3 out of 5]

É curto e direto, o autor mostra como gráficos mal feitos, intencionalmente ou não, podem induzir ao erro. Também aborda um pouco sobre viés de confirmação e sobre como debater com alguém (e tentar convencer uma pessoa que acredita em mentiras) sem ativar o instinto de autopreservação do cérebro. O autor cita suas fontes muito bem, o que é coerente com o que o próprio livro se propõe.