Althouse: The OBL feelings graph.

May 9, 2011

The OBL feelings graph.

A matrix of emotion.

11 comments:

BarryD said...: The NYT, grasping at straws to maintain a façade of relevance.; 5/9/11, 1:19 PM
hombre said...: O-o-o-h. Let me go out on a limb here and opine that all those NYT buffs who think the death of OBL will be a significant turning point in the war on terror have their feet planted firmly in the air.

Or perhaps they have another motive for flying in the face of reality.; 5/9/11, 1:23 PM
hombre said...: That is, maybe it's really a BHO feelings graph.; 5/9/11, 1:25 PM
Ken B said...: Note the first comment:

'What you neglect to mention is that this interactive graph is visually confusing. By drawing a horizontal line halfway between "Signifcant" and "Insignificant", the designers of this interactive exercise seem to have confused many participants. Based on their comments, many readers who selected grid boxes near this horizontal line seem to have been voting for "Insignificant", but did not recognize that the line represented something halfway between the two extremes.'

This is exactly right and extremely perceptive. There's a lot behind a good visual display of quantitative information and it is usually botched.; 5/9/11, 1:27 PM
hombre said...: Ken wrote: ..."What you neglect to mention is that this interactive graph is visually confusing."

Much as I am tempted to agree that NYT readers are confused, I don't find the graph confusing and it is speculative to suppose that they do.; 5/9/11, 1:48 PM
edutcher said...: Deck, meet stacked.

Ann, why do you waste the space?; 5/9/11, 1:57 PM
Wince said...: The OBL feelings graph.

Pour Toi

In 1981 the French songwriter Loulou Gasté sued Morris Albert for copyright infringement, claiming that "Feelings" plagiarized the melody of his 1957 song "Pour Toi". In 1988 Gasté won the lawsuit and was awarded 88% of the royalties generated by the song.; 5/9/11, 2:04 PM
Fen said...: Much as I am tempted to agree that NYT readers are confused, I don't find the graph confusing and it is speculative to suppose that they do.

From Ken's quote upthread:

Based on their comments, many readers who selected grid boxes near this horizontal line seem to have been voting for "Insignificant", but did not recognize that the line represented something halfway between the two extremes.

So, NOT speculative.

Although I don't know why I waste time discussing what's written in Pravda.; 5/9/11, 2:34 PM
Ken B said...: @Hombre: Maybe you don't. Still many seem to. That really does serve as a decent functional definition of "confusing". Designing these kinds of things is harder than you think because people make all kinds of errors. You should know the kinds of errors often made and try to avert them. The line and label serve as a visual focal point and can lead to errors.; 5/9/11, 2:43 PM
Lance said...: Ken's right. Many of the comments don't match the grid position. For example, look at the comments in the lower left. Most are skeptics who don't believe UBL was killed last week or bleeding hearts who think this will just make things worse. The skeptics should have added their comment at the bottom middle (no emotion + insignificant) while the bleeding hearts should have added their comment at the upper left (negative emotion + significant).; 5/9/11, 4:40 PM
Eric said...: This is an important development. The NYT has gone from disseminating bogus statistics to producing bogus statistcs.; 5/9/11, 6:52 PM