"Polarizing Political Polls" IEEE VIS Research Presentation by Eli Holder

Research presentation, sharing findings from the "Polarizing Political Polling" study at IEEE VIS 2023 in Melbourne.

Public opinion charts don’t just visualize public opinion, they also shape it. For example, charts showing politically polarized attitudes can undermine merit-based policy judgements and exacerbate political polarization.

The presentation used Visual Storytelling Through Metaphor and Progressive Visual Complexity to motivate the study, educate audiences on key social and political psychology concepts, and present complex findings in a way that’s memorable and engaging.

1. Visual Storytelling Through Metaphor: We developed a visualization system that maps political attitudes to spatial positions, using animated animal characters (cats vs. dogs considering "The Canadian Can Ban Plan") to make abstract concepts tangible and potentially controversial content more approachable. The visual metaphor of physical movement along an axis represents attitude change, making complex social dynamics immediately intuitive while staying true to the science.

2. Progressive Visual Complexity: The presentation builds from simple animated illustrations to sophisticated data visualizations, paralleling moving animal characters with a custom-designed "shifting range plot," revealing polarization patterns in the actual experiment data. Each visual element deliberately builds upon previous concepts, creating a coherent visual language throughout the presentation that helps audiences grasp increasingly complex patterns.