Figure 1. The trouble with barplots.

Example reproduced from “Boxplots vs. Barplots” ( 2016) two simulated datasets with mean = 50, sd = 25, and 1000 observations. A) a barplot and errorbars representing +/- standard error of the mean gives the impression that the measure is equivalent between the two groups. In fact, group 1 is drawn from an exponential distribution as seen in B) boxplots, and C) histograms. The barplot not only obscures the underlying nature of the observations, but also hides the fact that these data are not appropriate for standard parametric inference. See figure1.Rmd for code to generate these figures.