Displaying Data
Displaying Data
Misleading Graphs
Example 1
Why is the graph below misleading? How should it be represented?
Step 1. Look at the graph critically for misleading information in the scale, increments, or labels.
From this graph, it looks as though house prices have tripled in one year! It is misleading because the vertical axis does not start at 0.
Step 2. Make a new graph by changing the misleading part of the original.
In this case it is important to fix the scale of the vertical axis.
