This Week in Data Reading

This week Boris shares a piece on the persuasive power of data visualization. Read something provocative in the field of data science? Be sure to share your links in the comments.

Boris Gorelik

In “The Persuasive Power of Data Visualization,” a group of New York University researchers demonstrates the results of an experimental assessment: the claim that data visualization is indeed an effective tool for conveying a message.

The 2014 study claims that despite the fact that “…data visualization has been used extensively to inform users…little research has been done to examine the effects of data visualization in influencing users or in making a message more persuasive.”

To make their point, the researchers presented a series of questions to 150 Amazon Mechanical Turk users. (Such a setup isn’t flawless, of course, but is a common practice in many perception studies.)

Indeed, graphical representation was effective, at least for…