The South Shown in Graphics.

[mathematic]

100. Misleading. Here's why.

We see these blotches of color on the map in approximately the same place and our brain tricks us into thinking "correlation".

I'll try to give some intuitive reasons why you shouldn't draw conclusions between the maps.

1) The counties are too small. Can you spot dallas on all the maps? Is it the dark county surrounded by mostly white in "poverty"? Is it the 2nd darkest blue in "diabetes"? Is it the the relatively non-baptist area in "baptists"?

2) Evidence against correlation are easily ignored when interpreting these visually. The dark area of the baptist map does not match up well with the dark areas of the diabetes map. Texas and arkansas are medium blue in "diabetes" but red (n. texas) in "baptists". Ohio is dark blue in "diabetes" and has virtually no baptists and is mostly blue in "education".

3) The color buckets are too large. The "diabetes" map (the only map I can read the key) is approximately under-7%/7%/8%/9%/10+%. You can't measure correlation with large "everything else" type categories.

4) The maps attempt to tell a particular story while maintaining a sort of plausible deniability ("I never said that&quot . Take a closer look at "Child Maltreatment Death". Why are missisippi, tennessee, the carolinas, and virginia colored very dark red but have no numbers? They're not in the top 16. They should not be colored at all, like NY, NJ, and the rest of the northeast. Also note that #1 is florida, which appears to be most unlike the rest of the south by the other maps.

5) More important hidden variables. New mexico has high poverty but is nothing like the south. Why? Immigration. Southern Texas has relatively few baptists compared to northern texas? Why? (My guess is hispanic catholics). African americans have higher rates of diabetes and south has the highest population of African Americans (A-A population distribution map can be kind of surprising if you haven't thought much about it). The northwest is full of hardcore racists and conservatives and yet they are on the opposite end of all these maps compared to the south.

Well, these were just off the top of my head. I hope it helps people place these maps in a more informative context.