Political Ideologies + Reading Graphs Vocabulary

Political socialization

the process by which people develop their political beliefs.

Poorly worded or misleading question

A confusing question makes people answer differently than they actually believe.

ex Poorly worded or misleading question

ex: “Do you support cutting wasteful government spending?” (Assumes spending is wasteful.)

Raw numbers vs percentages

show totals; percentages show proportions, which can change the meaning.

ex Raw numbers vs percentages

ex: A graph shows crime numbers rising but the crime rate per capita falling.

Is it measuring the right thing?

Sometimes the graph uses a bad or irrelevant measurement.

ex Is it measuring the right thing?

ex: Measuring “school quality” by number of computers instead of student outcomes.

Correlation vs causation

Just because two things rise together doesn’t mean one caused the other.

ex Correlation vs causation

ex: Ice cream sales and drowning deaths both increase in summer.

Changing the measurements of the axis

Adjusting scale or starting points can make trends look bigger or smaller.

ex Changing the measurements of the axis

ex: Y-axis starting at 90 instead of 0 exaggerates differences.

Bias of the people who conducted the poll

Pollsters with agendas may frame questions to get certain answers.

ex Bias of the people who conducted the poll

ex: A partisan group asks, “Do you oppose unfair tax hikes?”

Missing context

A graph can mislead when key background info is left out.

ex Missing context

ex: Showing unemployment rising without noting a recession occurred.

Sampling error

Polls can be off by a margin because they surveyed only a sample.

ex Sampling error

ex: “Candidate A leads by 2 points ± 4%,” meaning the race is actually unclear.