Effect & Affect

Conjuring up stories from loose signals is how we see the world, and how we see other people. So when we read visualizations, it's easy to jump to conclusions that aren't actually supported by the data.

Have you ever avoided information that could help you make better decisions?🙈🦃 Information avoidance is more common than you think, and it has major implications for how we design data visualizations. 📊 Researchers have found that people avoid information for three main reasons: It challenges their beliefs. It requires undesired action. It stings emotionally. 🦃 Read our latest article to understand the factors that moderate information avoidance and how to apply them in your information design work. Ready to create data viz that people won't ignore? Sign up to our newsletter! Let's learn together how to design visualizations that make a real impact. #DataViz #DesignForChange

Tired of feeling like your environmental pleas fall on deaf ears? Imagine using art as a catalyst to jolt people into caring about sustainability. Sounds far-fetched? Read on. #DesignforGood #Dataart

What can dinner parties teach us about dataviz? Thanks to ensemble perception, your brain is weirdly good at parallel processing faces, grass, and zillions of lines on charts.

Did you know that the Earth is a perfect square? ⬛ You should know that this isn’t true. But if I repeat this four more times, you may start to believe it. This is known as the “Truth-by-Repetition” or “Illusory Truth” effect. And research shows that it may work even on the least plausible statements.

Hi we're Gabrielle Mérite and Eli Holder and we're launching Effect & Affect! TLDR: We think visual communication research is so cool. And it's important to our own design work. But academic papers are Zzz, intimidating, and frankly sometimes hard to read. So we're attempting to translate our favorites into something a bit more approachable.

How can 11 be larger than 12? Learn how a team of researchers used a human mind trick to convince psychology students that 11>12 in our very first article 🔢