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

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Curiosity Killed the Cat / The reading view

For the question you cannot leave alone.

There is a strong reading opportunity in the space between Critical Thinking and Information Design. “Lying with Visualizations: Seeing Isn't Believing” brings those listed subjects onto the same shelf and gives your next question a place to start. 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. Follow the most surprising question first. Sketch an explanation, imagine an alternative, and see what you would need to distinguish them. The best part of an interesting subject is often the next question it unlocks. Pick a question. Open a book. See where it takes you.

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Curiosity Killed the Cat reading lens

Follow the surprising question

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

Does the description distinguish an explanation from an intriguing possibility?

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Write an observation connected to one of the topics. List two possible explanations and the evidence that would help you tell them apart.

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.

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