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How To Scare A Whole Country With Dataviz

Notes, links, and follow up materials for the Visualization in Science and Education, Gordon Research Conference.

Thank you for the opportunity to share. Notes and materials are below for reference.

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Talk Notes

Why can't we have nice things?
Conventional disparity charts misplace blame.

They blame people, not systems.



Social groups can be nonsense, but still influential.

Social categories become real when we use them.



Some charts make people look like a**holes.

Hiding outcome variability promotes harmful stereotypes and misattributions about the groups being visualized.



Harmful stereotypes harm everyone

Charts that stereotype one group, hurt everyone by undermining collective action.



We can do better!

Boundary busting. Blaming systems not people. Counter-stereotypes.


How did we get here?


Status threat invites fascism.

Charts can be threatening!



You don't have to be a demagogue to do demagoguery

Winning the attention game incentivizes drama.



We can do better!

How to stop stirring drama.

a curious guinea pig
Would you like to be a guinea pig?

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