Mapping the Seven Deadly Sins
In another example of how quantitative analysis can be used to explore fun (if not always particularly useful) questions, geography researchers at Kansas State University have used publicly available statistics to map the Seven Deadly Sins in the United States.
The Las Vegas Sun has a good write-up, as well as a gallery of all of the maps:
One nation, seven sins - Las Vegas Sun
While the findings themselves aren’t necessarily surprising, quant geeks like me could argue for hours over whether the proxies used are the best choices for each sin (e.g., envy was represented by the total thefts per capita in each county).
Geographers and demographers, though, have a very powerful tool in the GIS mapping software that they use. As John King’s magic wall at CNN has shown (ad nauseam?) —first during the elections, now sine flu, and tomorrow, who knows—being able to map a trend by visualizing it across the US instantly engages the consumer in the “impact” of a news story, as it creates both a natural entry point (how does my home county/state look?) and an desire to compare those results against others around the country.
Depending on how quickly census data is made available, the 2010 Census will provide a wealth of these opportunities. The sheer amount of data collected by the Census will be available for the first time to such a collection of researchers armed with readily available visualizing tools.
As anyone who has studied quantitative analysis (or read Mark Twain) knows, statistics can be interpreted or manipulated to show many different lessons. What we see, however, is that while the story you wish to tell counts, how you tell it continues to be extremely important..
An given the amount of information that people come into contact with, how you deliver your story counts perhaps now more than ever.
