Minds On

Misleading information

Brainstorm

Thinking critically about misleading words

Think about an advertisement or commercial that you think is misleading. What was it about? Why was it misleading? What could you change about the advertisement or commercial to make it more accurate? What is the importance of accurate information?

Press ‘Hint’ to reveal a definition and example of the word misleading.

Misleading refers to when something or someone gives the wrong idea, information, or impression about something.

Example: If a commercial describes a food product one way and then the product in the store or restaurant is completely different.

Throughout this learning activity, you can record your thoughts digitally, orally, or in print.

Action

Which would you choose?

The following table displays the results of a survey done about the most common juice brand.

Brand of Juice

Number of people

Natural Juice

430

The Original Juice

495

Juice House

435

Examine the following graph. Which juice brand is the most common? Which juice would you choose based on this graph? Record your ideas in a method of your choice.

The next graph displays the same data and topic. What is different about this graph? Does it have the same data? Would this change your opinion on which juice you would choose if you only saw this graph?

Record your ideas using a method of your choice.

How a graph can be misleading

A misleading graph is a graph that displays the data in a way that is misrepresentative. For example, when the scale of a graph is changed, its appearance changes too. This can influence how the data is displayed on the graph and how someone might interpret this data. This can influence the conclusions made from reading the graph. Learning about misleading graphs can help us analyze the graphs we create to make sure they are accurate and appropriately scaled.

Press ‘Reflection’ to reveal an example of how one of the previous graphs you examined was misleading.

The second graph is actually misleading. If we examine the two graphs closely, we will notice that the scale on the y-axis is what has changed. When the scale was changed, it made it so that “The Original Juice” brand now stands out much more as the most popular, as the bar reaches much higher than the other two juice brands.

Student Success

Consider the best choice

If a marketing company for “The Original Juice,” was making a commercial or advertisement which graph would they choose to use? Why?

Which would provide a customer with an accurate answer for which juice brand people like more?

Record your ideas using a method of your choice.

Note to teachers: See your teacher guide for collaboration tools, ideas and suggestions.

Omitting numbers on a scale

The scale on the y-axis does not always need to begin at low numbers, as the data may only fall within a specific and higher range of numbers.

What would you do if you wanted your scale to rise by five each time, however you wanted to begin at 150 and not at five?

Graph that is blank but has the zig zag symbol on the y-axis. Starts at 150 after the zigzag on scale and then increases by 5.

When this is the case, a zig-zag symbol is used to show that some numbers or values have been omitted on the scale.

If you were creating a graph to display the rainfall in a city over different years (mm) you would most likely be working with values between 600 and up. The scale would likely skip number from zero to 600.

Can you think of another scenario when you would want to leave out certain values on your scale? Record your idea using a method of your choice.

Accurate or not accurate?

Examine the following two scenarios. Choose one scenario and decide if the graph in that scenario has been created appropriately or if it is misleading. If it is misleading, explain what is misleading about it and what you could do to make it more accurate.

Scenario 1

This bar graph displays data for the results of a survey about people’s favourite cookie flavours.

Scenario 2

This line graph shows the amount of rain in a city over the last few years. What is misleading about this graph? What does the line show about the trend of rainfall? Is the title of the graph accurate?

Compare and contrast two graphs

A group of people were surveyed about their favourite food. Explore the results of the survey in the following chart.

Food Type

Number of people

Pizza

571

Pasta

583

Sandwich

566

The data has been displayed in two different bar graphs. Decide which graph is more accurate and which is more misleading.

Consolidation

Misleading data analyst

A marketing company for a cellphone brand called “Reliable Cellphones” wanted to create an advertisement to promote their product using line graphs that compare their phone to another phone brand, called “Cellphones Galore.” The company started off by gathering data about people who responded with their preference in cellphone brands between 2015 and 2020. Examine the following table of results:

Year

Percentage of people who prefer “Reliable Cellphones”

Percentage of people who prefer “Cellphones Galore”

2015

16%

85%

2016

18%

82%

2017

22%

80%

2018

23%

80%

2019

25%

77%

2020

27%

74%

Student tips

Student tips

The missing percentages are for people who responded to the survey indicating they had no preference between the two cellphone brands.

The company took these results and created two line graphs that appeared side by side in their most recent commercial.

Help the company determine why their graphs are misleading and what they need to change about them.

Inform the company about:

  • how their graphs are misleading
  • why misleading graphs are problematic
  • what they could do in the future to ensure their graphs are not misleading and are representative of their data fairly
  • how could they change their graphs to be more representative of their data and less misleading
  • how to change the graph to be less misleading

Record your ideas on paper, on the computer, or as an audio clip.

Answer the questions below:

  1. Where could misleading graphs be found in real-life?
  2. Why is it important to have a good understanding of how to identify when a graph is misleading?

Reflection

As you read through these descriptions, which sentence best describes how you are feeling about your understanding of this learning activity? Press the button that is beside this sentence.

I feel…

Now, record your ideas using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.

Press ‘Discover More’ to extend your skills.

To buy or not to buy

A marketing company for a new chocolate bar called “Chocolate Extreme” has just released an advertisement that compares their bar to other chocolate bars. The data displays people’s preferences for each bar.

Examine the data that has been displayed in a chart:

Chocolate Bar Type

Number of people

Chocolate Delight

300

Chocolate Extreme

320

Simply Chocolate

310

After gathering this data from their survey, this is the graph the marketing company decided to use:

After examining the graph, answer the following questions about it:

  1. What is the graph telling us? What is it about?
  2. Is this graph misleading? Explain why.
  3. What could you do to change the graph to make it accurate and representative of the data?

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