James Drogan

Fron the HBR Daily Stat December 4, 2015.

When research participants were shown information about a new drug, ostensibly developed by a pharmaceutical company, those who saw a version containing both text and a corresponding chart were 23% more likely to rate the drug as effective than those who saw the text only. "One of the most striking things about our results is that the graphs were simple to understand, and added nothing beyond the information that was provided in writing," writes behavioral economist Aner Tal on HBR.org about this study and others like it. "In other words, graphs do not need to be impressively complicated, or even informative, to have a persuasive effect."