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Narrative visualizations: Depicting accumulating risks and increasing trust in data
Madison Fansher1, Logan Walls2, Chenxu Hao3
1Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. mfansher@umich.edu.
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
|February 21, 2025
Summary
Narrative visualizations improve risk communication by increasing understanding and trust in data. This approach helps people make better decisions when faced with surprising scientific information, like during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Area of Science:
- Data visualization
- Risk communication
- Scientific communication
Background:
- Surprising data visualizations can erode trust and lead to poor risk decisions, especially when prior knowledge is limited, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Effective risk communication is crucial for public health and safety, particularly for novel threats.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the efficacy of narrative visualizations in balancing the benefits of static visualizations, interactive simulations, and anecdotes.
- To determine if narrative visualizations can mitigate reduced concern caused by static visualizations in risk communication.
- To investigate the mechanisms by which narrative visualizations enhance risk perception and data trust.
Main Methods:
- Empirical studies comparing narrative visualizations with static visualizations for communicating COVID-19 transmission risk.
- Mediation analysis to assess the impact of perceived understanding and data trust on risk concern.
Main Results:
- Viewing narrative visualizations mitigated the reduced concern induced by static visualizations for COVID-19 transmission risk (Study 1).
- Narrative visualizations were more effective than static visualizations in increasing concern about large risks by enhancing perceived understanding and trust in data (Study 2).
Conclusions:
- Narrative visualizations represent a distinct and powerful class of tools for scientific communication.
- These visualizations are particularly valuable in contexts with surprising data and where empirical understanding is paramount.
- Narrative visualizations can improve public engagement with and trust in scientific data, leading to more informed risk assessment.
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