scholarly journals Truncating Bar Graphs Persistently Misleads Viewers

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Wei Yang ◽  
Camila Vargas Restrepo ◽  
Matthew Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Data Visualizations ◽  
Practical Recommendations ◽  
Bar Graphs

Data visualizations and graphs are increasingly common in both scientific and mass media settings. While graphs are useful tools for communicating patterns in data, they also have the potential to mislead viewers. In five studies, we provide empirical evidence that y-axis truncation leads viewers to perceive illustrated differences as larger (i.e., a truncation effect). This effect persisted after viewers were taught about the effects of y-axis truncation and was robust across participants, with 83.5% of participants across all 5 studies showing a truncation effect. We also found that individual differences in graph literacy failed to predict the size of individuals’ truncation effects. PhD students in both quantitative fields and the humanities were susceptible to the truncation effect, but quantitative PhD students were slightly more resistant when no warning about truncated axes was provided. We discuss the implications of these results for the underlying mechanisms and make practical recommendations for training critical consumers and creators of graphs.

Exploring an adaptability approach: how creative return processors impact firm performance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Espinosa ◽  
James Stock ◽  
David J. Ortinau ◽  
Lisa Monahan
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Product Returns ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Returns Management ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThe authors explore complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory as an updated theoretical perspective for managing product returns that better matches the chaotic nature of recent consumer behaviors. CAS theory highlights the importance of agents who create and self-organize to help systems adapt in unpredictable environments.Design/methodology/approachThis research utilizes data collected from return managers in an online survey and applies regression analyses to estimate the influence of the focal variables.FindingsEmpirical evidence of the firm flexibility–firm adaptability link is established, and return processor creativity positively relates to this link. The firm flexibility–firm adaptability link fully mediates the relationship between return processor creativity and returns management performance and partially mediates the relationship between return processor creativity and relationship quality. Nonmediated effects were observed for turnover and revenue size.Practical implicationsManagers of returns who embrace an adaptability approach become facilitators of returns by supporting processor creativity. Enhancing the autonomy of processors in their day-to-day work increases the knowledge-creation capabilities of the firm, which helps the firm move forward and adapt in an uncertain environment.Originality/valueThis research presents empirical evidence of the underlying mechanisms of CAS theory in the product returns context by studying processor agents and argues that CAS theory better fits the current dynamics of the product returns environment. Further, this paper extends work by Espinosa et al. (2019) and Nilsson (2019) by studying how a specific human characteristic – creativity – impacts product returns management.

Polarized News Media and the Polarization of the Electorate

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank C.S. Liu
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
Agent Based Simulations

An increasing amount of empirical evidence suggests that in democracies that usually divide into two camps during a campaign season, the news media environment is fragmented and polarized. An emerging concern is whether the electorate in such divided societies would be pulled by polarized news media outlets and become polarized as well. This study, employing a series of agent-based simulations that takes into account polarized news media, communication networks, and individual differences all together, explores the effect of a polarized news environment on increases in extremist opinions and in the proportion of individuals with divided communication networks. It also identifies circumstances under which individuals perceive division within their communication networks. The findings suggest that the effect of a polarized news media environment on polarizing the electorate may be overestimated, while the homogenizing effect of communication networks may be underestimated.

scholarly journals Multi-modal imaging and analysis in the search for iron-based magnetoreceptors in the honeybee Apis mellifera

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 181163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy A. Shaw ◽  
Alastair Boyd ◽  
Michael House ◽  
Gary Cowin ◽  
Boris Baer
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
Analysis Approach ◽  
Anatomical Region ◽  
Magnetic Sense ◽  
Iron Based ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

The honeybee Apis mellifera is one of many animal species for which empirical evidence of a magnetic sense has been provided. The underlying mechanisms postulated for magnetoreception in bees are varied, but most point towards the abdomen as the most likely anatomical region for its location, partly owing to the large accumulation of iron in trophocyte cells that comprise the honeybee fat body. Using a multi-modal imaging and analysis approach, we have investigated iron in the honeybee, with a particular focus on the abdomen and the utility of such techniques as applied to magnetoreception. Abdominal iron is shown to accumulate rapidly, reaching near maximum levels only 5 days after emerging from the comb and is associated with the accumulation of iron within the fat body. While fat body iron could be visualized, no regions of interest, other than perhaps the fat body itself, were identified as potential sites for magnetoreceptive cells. If an iron-based magnetoreceptor exists within the honeybee abdomen the large accumulation of iron in the fat body is likely to impede its discovery.

scholarly journals Aesthetics and Clarity in Information Visualization: The Designer’s Perspective

Arts ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Annemarie Quispel ◽  
Alfons Maes ◽  
Joost Schilperoord
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
Information Visualization ◽  
Information Design ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Good Design ◽  
The Public ◽  
Objective Information ◽  
Data Visualizations ◽  
Important Design

Designers are increasingly involved in creating ‘popular’ data visualizations in mass media. Scientists in the field of information visualization propose collaborations between designers and scientists in popular data visualization. They assume that designers put more emphasis on aesthetics than on clarity in their representation of data, and that they aim to convey subjective, rather than objective, information. We investigated designers’ criteria for good design for a broad audience by interviewing professional designers and by reviewing information design handbooks. Additionally, we investigated what might make a visualization aesthetically pleasing (attractive) in the view of the designers. Results show that, according to the information designers, clarity and aesthetics are the main criteria, with clarity being the most important. They aim to objectively inform the public, rather than conveying personal opinions. Furthermore, although aesthetics is considered important, design literature hardly addresses the characteristics of aesthetics, and designers find it hard to define what makes a visualization attractive. The few statements found point at interesting directions for future research.

scholarly journals Evolutionary causes and consequences of consistent individual variation in cooperative behaviour

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1553) ◽  
pp. 2751-2764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Bergmüller ◽  
Roger Schürch ◽  
Ian M. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Evolutionary Stability ◽  
Behavioural Syndrome ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Fitness Consequences

Behaviour is typically regarded as among the most flexible of animal phenotypic traits. In particular, expression of cooperative behaviour is often assumed to be conditional upon the behaviours of others. This flexibility is a key component of many hypothesized mechanisms favouring the evolution of cooperative behaviour. However, evidence shows that cooperative behaviours are often less flexible than expected and that, in many species, individuals show consistent differences in the amount and type of cooperative and non-cooperative behaviours displayed. This phenomenon is known as ‘animal personality’ or a ‘behavioural syndrome’. Animal personality is evolutionarily relevant, as it typically shows heritable variation and can entail fitness consequences, and hence, is subject to evolutionary change. Here, we review the empirical evidence for individual variation in cooperative behaviour across taxa, we examine the evolutionary processes that have been invoked to explain the existence of individual variation in cooperative behaviour and we discuss the consequences of consistent individual differences on the evolutionary stability of cooperation. We highlight that consistent individual variation in cooperativeness can both stabilize or disrupt cooperation in populations. We conclude that recognizing the existence of consistent individual differences in cooperativeness is essential for an understanding of the evolution and prevalence of cooperation.

scholarly journals Individual differences in behaviour explain variation in survival: a meta-analysis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Moiron ◽  
Kate L. Laskowski ◽  
Petri Toivo Niemelä
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Behavioural Types ◽  
Risky Behaviours ◽  
First Time

Research focusing on among-individual differences in behaviour (“animal personality”) has been blooming for over a decade. One of the central theories explaining the maintenance of behavioural variation posits a trade-off between behaviour and survival with individuals expressing greater “risky” behaviours suffering higher mortality. Here, for the first time, we synthesize the existing empirical evidence for this key prediction. Our results did not support this prediction as there was no directional relationship between riskier behaviour and greater mortality; however there was a significant absolute relationship between behaviour and survival. In total, behaviour explained a significant, but small, portion (4.4%) of the variance in survival. We also found that risky (versus “shy”) behavioural types live longer in the wild, but not in the laboratory. This suggests that individuals expressing risky behaviours might be of overall higher quality but the lack of predation pressure and resource restrictions mask this effect in laboratory environments. Our work implies that individual differences in behaviour explain important differences in survival but not in the direction predicted by theory. Importantly, this suggests that the models predicting survival trade-offs may need revision and/or empiricists may need to reconsider their proxies of risky behaviours when testing such theory.

The Accuracy of Stereotypes About Personality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Jussim ◽  
Sean Stevens ◽  
Nathan Honeycutt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
National Character ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Ballet Dancers ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Different Types

This chapter first reviews general conceptual and methodological issues in the study of the (in)accuracy of stereotypes. First, the authors define stereotype accuracy. Second, different types of accuracy are discussed and standards for considering a stereotype belief accurate or inaccurate are presented. Finally, the chapter reviews the empirical evidence produced thus far that bears on the (in)accuracy of stereotypes regarding personality. The strongest evidence regarding the (in)accuracy of stereotypes regarding personality have focused on gender, age, and national character stereotypes. Weaker evidence relying primarily on self-reports of individual differences with respect to racial stereotypes and miscellaneous stereotypes (e.g., jazz vs. ballet dancers) is also reviewed. The chapter concludes by developing hypotheses that could help explain the pattern of (in)accuracy in stereotypes regarding personality.

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