Question

Research data on the number of computers per capita in various countries of the world. Show how a newspaper could present the data in a way that misleads readers into believing that Canada is far behind other countries.

Answer 1

There are a few techniques that skew the analysis and the results of a survey -

- Faulty polling
- Flawed correlations
- Data fishing
- Misleading data visualization
- Purposeful and selective bias
- Using percentage change in combination with a small sample size

Here is the actual data on number of computers per capita in various countries of the world

The way they can present it in the wrong way so that people believe that Canada is far behind other countries-

1. Faulty polling - Conduct a survey, just take a limited number of people's opinions(small sample size) in it, and show the results as wanted.

2. Purposeful and selective bias - Take into consideration the biases, It is the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups or data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved, thereby ensuring that the sample obtained is not representative of the population intended to be analyzed. For example in this case, just take people who say Canada is behind and show the results.

3. Misleading Data Visualization

A data visualization chart of this kind can be created, it shows that Canada is behind other countries, data labels are not being shown here so that a false conclusion can be justified.