An Economist’s Guide to Visualizing Data.pdfVIP

Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 28, Number 1—Winter 2014—Pages 209–234 An Economist’s Guide to Visualizing Data Jonathan A. Schwabish nnce upon a time, a picture was worth a thousand words. But with onlinece upon a time, a picture was worth a thousand words. But with online nnews, blogs, and social media, a good picture can now be worth so muchews, blogs, and social media, a good picture can now be worth so much OOmmore. Economists who want to disseminate their research, both insideore. Economists who want to disseminate their research, both inside aand outside the seminar room, should invest some time in thinking about how tond outside the seminar room, should invest some time in thinking about how to cconstruct compelling and effective graphics.onstruct compelling and effective graphics. AAn effective graph should tap into the brain’s “pre-attentive visual processing”n effective graph should tap into the brain’s “pre-attentive visual processing” ((Few 2004; Healey and Enns 2012). Because our eyes detect a limited set of visualFew 2004; Healey and Enns 2012). Because our eyes detect a limited set of visual ccharacteristics, such as shape or contrast, we easily combine those characteristics andharacteristics, such as shape or contrast, we easily combine those characteristics and uunconsciously perceive them as an image. In contrast to “attentive processing”—thenconsciously perceive them as an image. In contrast to “attentive processing”—the cconscious part of perception that allows us to perceive things serially—pre-attentiveonscious part of perception that allows us to perceive things serially—pre-attentive pprocessing is done in parallel and is much faster. Pre-attentive processing allows therocessing is done in parallel and is much faster. Pre-attentive processing allows the rreader to perceive multiple basic visual elements simultaneously. Here is a simpleeader to perceive multiple