Does the Infamous Pie Chart Really Hurt Decision-Making in the Real World? Assessing the Role of Visualization in High-Level Academic Decisions

Yixuan Li, Emery D. Berger, Minsuk Kahng, Cindy Xiong Bearfield

Abstract: Visualization design influences how people perceive data patterns, yet most research focuses on low-level analytic tasks, such as finding correlations. Existing work has criticized pie charts for their perceptual limitations. However, simpler visualizations like pie and bar charts are widely used for real-world decision-making, such as choosing schools or advisors. As a case study, we examine whether pie charts hurt high-level decisions compared to bar charts, using the website that presents academic data, CSRankings.org. By comparing the impact of pie charts versus bar charts on users' impressions of faculty productivity and projected workload, we found no significant differences in decisions among over 300 participants. Our findings challenge traditional views on visualization design, emphasizing the need for real-world use cases in evaluations.