Do Animated Line Graphs Increase Risk Inferences?

Abstract

This article shows that animated display of time-varying data (e.g., stock or commodity prices) enhances risk judgments. We outline a process whereby animated display enhances the visual salience of transitions in a trajectory (i.e., successive changes in data values), which leads to transitions being utilized more to form cognitive inferences about risk. In turn, this leads to inflated risk judgments. The studies reported in this article provide converging evidence via eye tracking (Study 1), serial mediation analyses (Studies 2 and 3), and experimental manipulations of transition salience (graph type; Study 3) and utilization of transitions (global trend; Study 4 and investment goals; Study 5) and, in the process, outline boundary conditions. The studies also demonstrate the effect of animated display on consequential investment decisions and behavior. This article adds to the literature on salience effects by disambiguating the role of inference making in how salience of stimuli causes biases in judgments. Broader implications for visual information processing, data visualization, financial decision making, and public policy are discussed.