How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information

By Alberto Cairo · W. W. Norton & Company · 2020

Study guide: Exam PCPA

A book on how charts can mislead as well as inform, teaching readers to spot the lies in deceptive visuals and to use good ones to understand complex stories. In the publisher's description, charts lie by displaying incomplete or inaccurate data, suggesting misleading patterns and concealing uncertainty, or are misunderstood; the book works through examples from election-result infographics to global GDP maps and box-office record charts. Norton's description of the October 2020 paperback (256 pages) says it includes "an updated afterword on the graphics of the COVID-19 pandemic."

On the syllabus

• Exam PCPA — objectives C1–C3 (Domain C, Model Interpretation and Presentation); the outline cites the whole book (Norton, 2020), as a book to be purchased (B).

Prologue: A World Brimming with Charts

How Charts Work

Charts That Lie by Being Poorly Designed

Charts That Lie by Displaying Dubious Data

Charts That Lie by Displaying Insufficient Data

Charts That Lie by Concealing or Confusing Uncertainty

Charts That Lie by Suggesting Misleading Patterns

Sources

• How Charts Lie (W. W. Norton & Company) — the publisher's record of the paperback: title and subtitle, ISBN 978-0-393-35842-1, publication date 13 October 2020, 256 pages, no edition statement, and the description with its afterword
• How Charts Lie, 2020 paperback (Google Books) — the paperback's publisher description, corroborating the ISBN, the date and the page count
• Princeton University Library catalogue record, 2019 first edition (MARC) — the contents note that gives the chapter titles, in order and unnumbered; it describes the 2019 hardcover first edition and lists no afterword, which is why none appears below
• CAS PCPA Content Outline v.8, updated 9.9.2026 — the citation (Norton, 2020), the domain and the source type