Lying with Visualizations: Seeing Isn't Believing

By Kenwright

A provocative exploration of how visualizations can mislead, manipulate, and distort truth. This book equips readers with the critical thinking skills needed to decode deceptive graphics and uncover the reality behind the visuals.

Pages: 712
Publication: 10 October 2025
Language: English
ISBN: 9798269182964

View on Amazon

Details are supplied by the publisher catalogue. Confirm the edition, price, and availability with the retailer before buying.

0 reader favourites

Real votes on More Lovingly. This is an interest count, not a review score.

More Lovingly / The reading view

An idea is richer when people matter.

The appeal of “Lying with Visualizations: Seeing Isn't Believing” starts with its focus on Critical Thinking. That is fertile territory for a reader ready to move beyond collecting ideas and start making connections. Visualisation connects analysis with the way another person sees an argument. Choose a comparison that matters and ask which design decisions make that comparison easier to understand. Keep a person and a situation in view as you explore. Ask who would use the idea, what they would need to understand, and how their experience could change your interpretation. That human question is a productive creative starting point. Save it for the next time you want to follow the idea further.

Find your reading angle →

Put someone in the picture

Explore Analytics, Data Visualization, Media Literacy with a reading approach that gives the ideas somewhere to go. Visualisation connects analysis with the way another person sees an argument. Choose a comparison that matters and ask which design decisions make that comparison easier to understand.

The listed 712 pages give a sense of extent; page count alone does not establish depth or difficulty.

A question before you choose

Whose needs and circumstances are represented in the available examples?

Try this with the topic

Choose a person and a task related to a listed topic. Ask what the approach would require them to understand and whose experience might be missing.

Publisher’s synopsis

In an age of information overload, visualizations are everywhere - from news articles and social media to scientific reports and political campaigns. But not all visuals are created to inform. Some are designed to persuade, mislead, or even manipulate. This book dives deep into the psychology and techniques behind deceptive visualizations, exposing common tricks like misleading axes, cherry-picked data, chartjunk, and more. With real-world examples and practical analysis, readers will gain the tools to critically evaluate visual information and become savvy consumers of data.

Make room for the reading