bengoldacre - secondary blog

ben goldacre witters on and on and on about things that are too long to post on twitter and not clever enough to post on his main blog at www.badscience.net

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    looking forward to more of these

     

    naughty y-axis graphs....

     

    Libdem_bar_graph

    haha

    • 15 March 2010
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    about 2 years ago Kat responded:
    Excellent result in general but a shame the graph seems to be on a weird scale. Shouldn't the Lib dem bar be 2/3 of the height of the Labour one!
    about 2 years ago Matt Rowell responded:
    Ahh, the old "can't win here" line of attack. Some Lib Dem junk I imagine? Had exactly the same delivered through my door last week, only with Lab and the Con reversed...
    about 2 years ago Mick responded:
    Yeah, where I live it's Lib Dem v Con. Labour can't win here. But it's not a scientifically accurate graph either!
    about 2 years ago DavidE responded:
    Our local Lib Dem has a very similar leaflet:
    http://colineldridge.org.uk/

    To be fair the graph is a little more accurate.

    about 2 years ago L Blaney responded:
    The lib dems send us these types of graphs for every election. Even for the European elections, where the whole of Scotland is counted together, they seemed to think the fact that they came second in our local constituency in the last general election is relevant.
    about 2 years ago jdc325 responded:
    jdc325
    "Shouldn't the Lib dem bar be 2/3 of the height of the Labour one! "
    Yes, that's what I thought. I've uploaded a PDF of what I think the graph *should* look like here: http://jdc325.posterous.com/graph-fun
    about 2 years ago Paul Crowley responded:
    The actual bar chart looks like this:

    about 2 years ago Dunstan responded:
    They've missed another useful trick: by making their column slightly wider and the Conservatives' column slightly narrower, they could have given a (misleading) visual cue based on the area of each colour.

    Another one from "How to Lie with Statistics" http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Lie-Statistics-Penguin-Business/dp/0140136290

    about 2 years ago Graeme responded:
    Looks "scientifically accurate" to me - it's just plotgted on a logarithmic scale ;-)

    :-p

    about 2 years ago Graeme responded:
    Gah - if only I could type!
    about 2 years ago Andrew responded:
    I'm sympathetic to the complaints about the "nonlinear" scale on this graph - when I produce them everything is strictly proportional. However, as this is Ben's blog, I thought I ought to point out that there is a strong evidence base to support the use of these graphs. They are used by all parties, but particularly the Liberal Democrats. The reason is that the evidence from polling is that the message most likely to increase the likelihood of a voter supporting the Lib Dems is the message that they stand a good chance of winning.
    about 2 years ago Azygous responded:
    Azygous
    @Graeme - this approach just irritates me and makes me more resolved /not/ to vote `tactically'.

  • Ben Goldacre's Space

    I like stats. I'm a doctor. I write about dodgy scientific claims in my spare time.

    This isn't my main blog. Find me here:

    Blog:
    www.badscience.net/

    Book:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Science-Ben-Goldacre/dp/000728487X/?tag=bs0b-21

    Tweet:
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    TED talk:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battling_bad_science.html

  • About Ben Goldacre

    I like stats. I'm a doctor. I write about dodgy scientific claims in my spare time.

    This isn't my main blog. Find me here:

    Blog:
    www.badscience.net/

    Book:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Science-Ben-Goldacre/dp/000728487X/?tag=bs0b-21

    Tweet:
    www.twitter.com/bengoldacre

    TED talk:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battling_bad_science.html

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