For this homework, you will practice doing something unethical with data, which is to make a convincing argument that a false statement is actually true — that is, to use data to deceive.

The purpose of this is certainly not to help you deceive others! Rather, the goal is to help you identify the kind of ways others may be “lying” with data, and to help you avoid being unintentionally misleading when you present data to others.

Requirements

Your assignment is to make a single slide that uses data to convince a lay audience that a statement which is clearly false is in fact true.

The statement

Here are some examples of such statements that you could use:

• Being short makes you a better basketball player
• Getting less sleep will help you do better in class
• Eating lots of fast food makes you live longer
• Whales are smaller than mice

You could also choose some other statement (have fun!) as long as:

• Everyone clearly knows the statement is false (it’s not controversial or overly technical)
• There is some easily-accessible data or statistics you can find in relation to the claim
• There is not an existing group of people that actually believes it

(Relating to the last requirement there: This is to prevent statements like “the earth is flat”, which is clearly false, but where there are lots of existing arguments online that try to use data to “prove” it is true. I don’t want you to use other people’s arguments; I want you to come up with your own!)

The (false) evidence

You need to use data, numbers, or statistics to convince us that your statement is true. Of course, this will necessarily entail being misleading in some way, such as relying on small or self-run experiments, cherry-picking results, exaggerating statistically insignificant differences, etc.

You cannot just make things up. Your argument needs to be supported by actual facts, even though the statement you are proving is untrue.

Your facts should be documented and checkable (e.g., by providing URLs at the bottom of your slide).

The slide

Remember, the assignment is to make just one slide.

Your slide must have:

• Your name
• The (false) statement which you are “proving”
• The evidence or argument you are using
• At least one picture, graph, or diagram to convince or distract the audience
• URLs of any facts you are citing (can be small at the bottom)

Being entertaining and “polished” is an excellent tactic to be convincing!

Submission

Submit your slide as a Google Presentation link or a single pdf file (no pptx please; they don’t display correctly on the classroom desktops).

Send your slide in an email to your instructor with a subject line like

sd212 hw25 sec3

where “sec3” might be instead “sec1” or “sec5” depending on which section you are in.