Perception of bar graphs – A biased impression?

Abstract

Computers provide ubiquitous contact to data graphs. Yet, employing the power of the human perception system bears the risk of being subject to its biases. Data graphs are used to present the means of different conditions and are supposed to convey group information, such as variability across conditions, as well as the grand average. Across three samples, we tested whether there is a bias in the central tendency perceived in bar graphs, 53 participants with a mean age of 27 years (plus replication with N = 38, mean age = 23 years). Participants were provided with bar and point graphs and had to judge their means. We found that the mean value was systematically underestimated in bar graphs (but not in point graphs) across different methods of testing for biased evaluation. In a second experiment (N = 80, mean age = 24 years) we replicated and extended this finding, by testing the effect of outliers on the bias in average estimation. For instance, outliers might trigger controlled processing. Yet, the underestimation of the average was replicated and was not affected by including outliers – despite that the estimate was torn towards the outlier. Thus, we should be cautious with relying on bar graphs when a bias free estimate of the grand average is relevant.