Baxter Oliphant

@baxteroliphant.bsky.social

Researcher at Pew Research Center; Ph.D. in politics from Princeton. Husband, father, bike commuter, gamer, inline skater, car camper and hiker. Spends way too much time reading the news and nonfiction books. RTs & likes do not equal endorsements.

In our charts, we sometimes illustrate the margin of error through error bars, also called confidence intervals. But what do they mean? How should they be interpreted? Here are some answers to common questions that might help you better understand charts with error bars.

Understanding error bars in charts

Error bars illustrate the margin of error for a survey estimate by showing how precise that estimate is. Here are some answers to common questions that might help you better understand charts with error bars.

pewresearch.org

47% of Americans are extremely or very concerned about Russia invading other countries, and 43% are concerned about Russia defeating and taking over Ukraine. Republicans have become less concerned about both possibilities in recent months, while Democrats have become more so.

A set of line charts showing that Democrats are much more concerned than Republicans about various Russia-Ukraine war scenarios

New from Pew Research Center: After Trump’s victory, Democrats are more pessimistic about their party’s future 49% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are pessimistic about the future of their party; just 13% of Rep/Lean Rep say the same www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

After Trump’s victory, Democrats are more pessimistic about their party’s future

The partisan gap in Republican and Democratic views of their parties’ futures (35 percentage points) is much larger than after any recent election.

pewresearch.org

Disney owns both The Muppets and Star Wars, and the fact they are not making a Muppet version of all nine main-series Star Wars movies is only explained by the fact that they secretly hate making money.

NEW: To mark 20 years of the Pew Research Center, we took a look back at some of the biggest changes in US public opinion during that time. Of note: Complete reversals on same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization, and the emergence of China as a perceived threat.

How U.S. Public Opinion Has Changed in 20 Years of Our Surveys

We took a closer look at how Americans’ views and experiences have evolved on a variety of topics over the last 20 years.

pewresearch.org