Several years ago, the American Psychological Association (APA) established a special
task force to investigate the statistical methods used in psychological research. Among
the recommendations of this task force was the wider use of graphic techniques to
communicate study results (Wilkinson and the Task Force on Statistical Inference,
1999). In one influential paper, Latour (1990) outlined the reasons why graphs are such
powerfully persuasive communication tools. He states that graphs are immutable,
readable, scalable, transportable, and combinable, thus making them particularly
effective at convincing others of one’s viewpoint. Graphs quickly convey research
findings without much effort on the part of the observer. Latour argued that
well-constructed graphs force doubters to develop and present their own persuasive
evidence to refute or argue the information being presented