A picture apocryphally speaks a thousand words, but its 21st-century counterpart – the infographic – often says much less. It's no surprise that the grabby and easily shared format has taken off in the internet era, and the latest graphic to go viral is one on a tough and complex problem: rape and criminal justice. Published on the Washington Post website, it shows hundreds of rapists going unreported, others escaping investigation, a tiny fraction jailed. In stark relief stand just two false accusations. It's a startling depiction of a very real issue. But it doesn't hold together under scrutiny: figures for the percentage of rapes reported vary from about 5% to 50%, but the graphic arbitrarily chooses 10%. The structure of the graphic implies that men tried but not found guilty of rape are, in fact, rapists. How do we know? Surely not all of them are.
The problems come because an infographic displays in stark black and white ideas that are often, in factreality, fuzzy. So how to read themwithout getting lost in a good picture? There's three good questions to ask:
1. Where are these figures from? If a graphic says 67% of people believe Justin Bieber is the second coming of Jesus, who did its author ask?
2. Does it make sense? A World Water Day graphic once claimed a slice of white bread used 1,000 litres of water, and a whole pizza 1,200 litres. Both can't be right. It's entirely possible neither was. A quick sense check often saves the day.
3. What are we looking at? Boringly, you can't always mash together data from different sources: survey data, police data and courts data all measure different stuff.
The best trick, though, is to think of an infographic like a headline: it's trying to make a point to grab your interest. But unless you believe every headline you read, you probably shouldn't do the same with infographics either.
