{"id":865,"date":"2023-06-25T21:23:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T21:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?p=865"},"modified":"2023-06-25T21:23:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T21:23:49","slug":"go-get-the-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Go Get the Data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My mantra when I was working on <em>Probably Overthinking It<\/em> was &#8220;Go Get the Data.&#8221; If I wanted to use a result from prior work, I would get the data whenever possible and make my own visualization. Of course, that&#8217;s more work than copying and pasting a figure, but there are a lot of benefits. One is that I can often get newer data. Another is that I can check the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was reminded of these benefits a few months ago when I was reading a very good book that I won&#8217;t name because I&#8217;m about to point out an error, and I don&#8217;t want to be a jerk about it. The book includes the following figure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"499\" height=\"341\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shermer249.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-866\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shermer249.png 499w, https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shermer249-300x205.png 300w, https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shermer249-395x270.png 395w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 499px) 100vw, 499px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: A book I&#8217;m not identifying because the point of this example is not to name and shame.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The top line got my attention because I have worked on several projects with data from the General Social Survey (GSS), and this particular question is one of the examples in my <a href=\"https:\/\/allendowney.github.io\/PoliticalAlignmentCaseStudy\/04_worldview.html#time-series\">Political Alignment Case Study<\/a>. Plotting the fraction of people who think homosexuality is wrong, I generated this figure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-870\" width=\"498\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image.png 630w, https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-362x270.png 362w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Downey, <a href=\"https:\/\/allendowney.github.io\/PoliticalAlignmentCaseStudy\/04_worldview.html#time-series\">Political Alignment Case Study<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>These results are not the same (even accounting for the inverted y-axis).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I checked the source, which is Steven Pinker&#8217;s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3IoB0yO\">The Better Angels of Our Nature<\/a><\/em>, specifically this figure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-871\" width=\"610\" height=\"429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452.png 948w, https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452-768x541.png 768w, https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452-383x270.png 383w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Page 452 of Pinker, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3IoB0yO\">The Better Angels of Our Nature<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It looks like Pinker&#8217;s figure is consistent with mine. So what went wrong with the first figure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what I think happened: they wanted to invert the y axis to show the percentage who think homosexuality is <em>not<\/em> wrong. But instead of flipping the y axis, they seem to have flipped the x axis, reversing the arrow of time! If you compare the other lines, it looks like they have all been reversed left-for-right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, this is just one error in an otherwise excellent book. But it&#8217;s a reminder that this kind of thing can be avoided, if you Go Get the Data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My mantra when I was working on Probably Overthinking It was &#8220;Go Get the Data.&#8221; If I wanted to use a result from prior work, I would get the data whenever possible and make my own visualization. Of course, that&#8217;s more work than copying and pasting a figure, but there are a lot of benefits. One is that I can often get newer data. Another is that I can check the results. I was reminded of these benefits a few&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Go Get the Data - Probably Overthinking It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Go Get the Data - Probably Overthinking It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My mantra when I was working on Probably Overthinking It was &#8220;Go Get the Data.&#8221; If I wanted to use a result from prior work, I would get the data whenever possible and make my own visualization. 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Read More Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Probably Overthinking It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-25T21:23:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shermer249.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AllenDowney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AllenDowney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AllenDowney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AllenDowney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AllenDowney\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5bfb2e9af6c3446cb0031a7bf83207\"},\"headline\":\"Go Get the Data\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-25T21:23:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/\"},\"wordCount\":348,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shermer249.png\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/\",\"name\":\"Go Get the Data - 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In fact, I like it so much I have a Google alert that notifies me when someone publishes a new example (or when the horse named Simpson\u2019s Paradox wins a race). So I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"epidemiology\"","block_context":{"text":"epidemiology","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/tag\/epidemiology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":786,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/11\/polarization-and-partisan-sorting\/","url_meta":{"origin":865,"position":2},"title":"Polarization and partisan sorting","author":"AllenDowney","date":"September 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m working on a book called Probably Overthinking It that is about using evidence and reason to answer questions and guide decision making. If you would like to get an occasional update about the book, please join my mailing list. In the previous article, I used data from the General\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/alignment9-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/alignment9-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/alignment9-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/alignment9-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/alignment9-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/alignment9-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1097,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/07\/we-have-a-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":865,"position":3},"title":"We Have a Book!","author":"AllenDowney","date":"November 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"My copy of Probably Overthinking It has arrived! If you want a copy for yourself, you can get a 30% discount if you order from the publisher and use the code UCPNEW. You can also order from Amazon or, if you want to support independent bookstores, from Bookshop.org. The official\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":721,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/09\/name-that-distribution\/","url_meta":{"origin":865,"position":4},"title":"The Student-t model of Long-Tailed Distributions","author":"AllenDowney","date":"May 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've mentioned, I'm working on a book called Probably Overthinking It, to be published in early 2023. It's intended for a general audience, so I'm not trying to do research, but I might have found something novel while working on a chapter about power law distributions. If you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/djia-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/djia-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/djia-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/djia-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":243,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/26\/right-left-apart-together\/","url_meta":{"origin":865,"position":5},"title":"Right, left, apart, together?","author":"AllenDowney","date":"July 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Is the United States getting more conservative? With the rise of the alt-right, Republican control of Congress, and the election of Donald Trump, it might seem so. Or is the country getting more liberal? With the 2015 Supreme Court decision supporting same-sex marriage, the incremental legalization of marijuana, and recent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"general social survey\"","block_context":{"text":"general social survey","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/tag\/general-social-survey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/image-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}