Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68012
SOMATIC RESEARCH 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 u u u u u u u u interpreting charts of averages. Image 5 shows the results of a fictional study and reports average pain scores on a scale from 1–8 (on the vertical y-axis) after each of a series of 8 massages (the horizontal x-axis). On average, the chart shows a trend 1 A chart of averages. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 83% 82% 81% 80% 79% 78% 77% 76% 75% 74% Did not finish college toward lowering pain scores, although that trend is not perfectly uniform for all members of the group after every massage, as shown by a couple of rises in the line as it moves from left to right. There are two pitfalls to avoid. First of all, the data is descriptive of what did happen, so we cannot extrapolate (infer) from it or project what will happen after the ninth massage and beyond. The second pitfall is assuming that the data can be mapped exactly to individuals in the group; as the rises in the line show, while the scores for the group as a whole tended to decrease over time, there were actually enough individual increases at times to impact the group scores. So while the line describes the group, it does not—and cannot— provide the reader enough information to make specific predictions about what will happen to particular individuals after future massages. Finished undergraduate study Correlation between massage use and educational level. Finished graduate study ILLUSIONS OF SCALE A final pitfall to watch for is when the information is accurate, but the effect of presenting it visually is to make the outcomes or differences look far larger or far smaller than they are in reality. Image 6 illustrates a fictional study in which the researchers studied how use of massage correlates with educational levels. They found that in their sample, 82 percent of people who never finished a college degree used massage, 134 massage & bodywork march/april 2009