Question

Binge-watchingDo you “binge-watch” television series by viewing multiple episodes of a series at one sitting? A survey of 800 people who binge-watch were asked how many episodes is too many to watch in one viewing session. The results are displayed in the bar graph. Explain how this graph is misleading.

Short answer

Because the bar graph does not begin at 0.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Given information.

The given bar graph is shown below:

Step 2. Explanation.

The graph is deceptive because the bars in the bar graph do not begin at 0 (as they do in the bar graphs that begin at 12.5 or 13).

As a result, the graph is misleading since the differences between the various categories are exaggerated.

For example, the "5 to 6" category bar looks to be more than 10 times higher than the "3 to 4" category bar, implying that the number of episodes seen while binge-watching is at least 10 times more likely to be 5 to 6 than 3 to 4.

However, approximately 14 percent of people binge-watch 3 to 4 episodes, whereas approximately 31 percent binge watch 5 to 6 episodes, despite the fact that 31 percent is not at least 10 times greater than 14 percent.