Empirical Statistics .5. Evidence On The Extent Of The Steepness Bias In Visual Estimation Of Trends

    Authors

    C. D. Bailey

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Percept. Mot. Skills

    Keywords

    Psychology, Experimental

    Abstract

    The existence of a pervasive and pronounced steepness bias in visually fitting a line to data in a scattergraph was investigated. 262 undergraduate business students were asked to fit lines visually to scattergraphs, to correspond to a least squares regression fit; These visually estimated lines strongly overestimated the steepness of the actual trend. As visual inspection of data is an important step for the detection of linear trends and outliers prior to regression analysis, this bias in subjective perception of the line may result in inappropriate deletion or retention of outliers, transferring the subjective bias into the results of least squares regression. In addition, textbooks on management accounting discuss the use of visually fitted lines to estimate cost behavior.

    Journal Title

    Perceptual and Motor Skills

    Volume

    82

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-1996

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    731

    Last Page

    734

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:A1996UP56000002

    ISSN

    0031-5125

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