Knowing the reaction it would elicit, an old friend of mine sent me a link to an article entitled “Shocking Graphic Reveals Why a Big Mac Costs Less Than a Salad”, which featured the chart pictured here. I did indeed find the graphic shocking, but not for the reason the headline writer intended. The graphic in question, taken from the Consumerist which in turn had taken it from Good Medicine*, shows a pair of charts comparing the levels of subsidies different food types receive in the US compared to recommended dietary intake of corresponding food groups. Needless to say, the foods receiving the largest subsidies are the ones that should be consumed in the smallest proportions and the conclusion: no wonder Americans are getting fatter.
The idea that the US government’s agricultural policies appear to be producing decidedly unhealthy outcomes is one I have been reading about in the fascinating book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (its tale of the sex-life of corn alone makes it worth the price) and so this was not what I found shocking about the graphic. What shocked me was the travesty of data visualization used in the graphic: pyramid charts.
It should not be surprising that charts like this are becoming increasingly common since so many charting tools try to lure you into using them. The screenshot below shows the options that the current version of Microsoft Excel offers under the heading “Column” charts. I would argue that everything below “2-D Column” should be banned from the arsenal of the thinking chart-user. These variants on three-dimensional graphics all represent the trap “chart junk”: fancy extra details that, at best, add nothing to the information being conveyed and, at worst, result in distortion. Cones and pyramids fall well into the distortion category.
No doubt echoes of the “food pyramid” trope made the choice of pyramids an irresistible temptation for the Consumerist. The problem is that the data is represented by the height of each segment of the pyramid, but we tend to perceive the apparent volume of each layer. As a result, the layers near the top appear much smaller that they should relative to the lower layers**. This serves to drastically exaggerate how little government funding in the US is directed to fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes. Using a more prosaic bar chart instead shows that, while the funding of meat and dairy is certainly far greater, the ratios are not as extreme as the pyramid suggests.
The bar chart has the added advantage of making it easier to gauge the funding proportion for each category. Also, having each layer stacked one on top of another makes it harder to compare one figure with another. The bar chart eliminates the need for moving the shapes around in your mind in an attempt to make these comparisons. Note how close the funding levels are for grains compared to sugar, oil, starch and alcohol, while the pyramid chart makes the funding of grains look significantly higher.
The original graphic compensates by quoting each of the figures, but this defeats the purpose of using a chart. If your chart does not make the numbers evident, use a table instead! The extent of the distortion that the pyramids produce is even more apparent in the case of the recommended diet data. While the recommended intake of sugar, oil and salt is certainly low, on the bar chart this category is no longer vanishingly small.
Another visualisation alternative would be to use pie charts. While pie charts do have a bad reputation in statistical and scientific circles, and are often used and abused in many a business presentation, they allow more straightforward comparisons of the contributions categories make to the whole. In the pie chart it is much easier to see at a glance that vegetables and fruit should make up about a third of a regular diet, while protein combined with sugar, oil and salt should make up about a quarter. On the other hand, it is harder to use a pie chart to scan numerical values. For that purpose, the bar chart excels (no pun intended). So when choosing a chart to represent data, it is essential to first decide what aspect of the data you are aiming to highlight.
The pyramid charts were indeed intended to shock, but there was no need for the authors of the post to resort to misleading exaggeration. The figures should be allowed to speak for themselves. Even when using dispassionate bar charts, it remains clear that the US government is funneling a disproportionate amount of money into the types of food Americans are already over-consuming.
You might also be interested in these posts on charts.
* Thanks to Greg for the updated source.
** As a commenter on Lifehacker observed, this distortion would also occur in 2-D triangles, so it’s due to the shape rather than the 3-D nature of the charts. Having said that, the 3-D versions are far more common and indeed Excel only gives the 3-D options.
