Professor’s Research Examines How COVID-19 Graphs May Miss The Mark

Press release from Kennesaw State University:

Jan 21, 2021

Professor’s research examines how COVID-19 graphs may miss the mark

Sara Doan

KENNESAW, Ga.
(Jan 21, 2021) — Charts and graphs are common tools for people to share and discuss data surrounding
the COVID-19 pandemic, but those visuals may have the potential be misinterpreted
by audiences, according to Kennesaw State University’s Sara Doan.

Doan, assistant professor of technical communication, has studied graphs and charts published by media companies and magazines during
the pandemic, revealing instances of misinformation – either intentional or unintentional
– that give audiences skewed perceptions of the virus’ spread and effect on society.

“Misinformation is one of the big problems of our time,” Doan said. “Within COVID-19,
there have been so many times where data has been misrepresented, downplayed or minimized,
so I’ve been looking specifically at charts and graphs from the early part of the
epidemic when people in the United States were just starting to realize that COVID
was going to be a big thing.”

While technology has allowed for more people to create and share visual representations,
Doan posits that technology has allowed people to become their own publicists, potentially
leading to more cases of graphical misinterpretation. According to Doan, people in
the United States and western Europe tend to associate diagrams with scientific and
logical thinking – meaning that, if people can see data visually, they tend to trust
it. This creates a problem because charts can be cherry-picked, or the captions and
labels of the chart might not tell the whole story.

According to Doan, a national magazine shared a series of four pie charts in March
2020 that compared the number of fatal cases of COVID-19 with the seasonal flu, Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The
data was technically accurate, but the groupings were possibly misleading.

“The pie charts did not consider the rate of spread of the diseases and that COVID
is very, very contagious,” Doan said. “The charts also did not humanize the data because
COVID-19 is having such a disproportionate impact on African American and Native American
communities as well as the working class. The charts made it look like COVID was going
to be less severe, when it really isn’t.”

Doan found another example of a misleading graph published by a TV news organization
in Denver that deliberately adjusted the logarithmic scale on the vertical Y-axis
of the chart to make it seem like the surge of COVID-19 cases in Colorado from March
21 to March 22, 2020 was smaller than it really was, creating the potential for people
to downplay the rate of the virus’ spread at the beginning of the pandemic.

To hear more about Doan’s research and findings, listen to the “Thought Provoking” podcast hosted by KSU’s Norman J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

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A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers more than 150 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 41,000 students. With 11 colleges on two metro Atlanta campuses, Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia and the second-largest university in the state. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the region and from 126 countries across the globe. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 6 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.

This press release was produced by Kennesaw State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.