[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-84692-en":3,"doc-seo-84692-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},84692,4398048949847,"Eliana","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002536579ef2da7f?_k=1778318612642679267",8,"Research & Report","Evaluating Affective Objectives: Statistical Numbing in Data Visualization","Visualizations help audiences grasp the scale of humanitarian tragedies, but designers often default to quantitative communication that may miss affective objectives such as caring, empathy, or taking action. Standard statistical visualizations can even numb emotions and weaken prosocial motivation toward people in need. Designers use narrative techniques to increase affective responses. This paper studies three crisis communication strategies—data-driven, human-driven, and mixed narratives—using data-video formats and donation behavior as an outcome.","arXiv :2607 .03445v 1 [ cs .HC] 3 Jul 2026  \nEvaluating Affective Objectives: Statistical Numbing in Data  \nVisualization  \nElsie Lee-Robbins  and Eytan Adar   \nFig. 1: (Left) A picture of Ruqio, a Somali woman, and her child in a hospital. Image from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) [62] . (Right) Data visualization of the population and location of Somalis facing food insecurity. Chart recreated, based on UN OCHA’s Humanitarian Response Plan Report [63] . Which is more effective to inspire prosocial feelings and behaviors?  \nAbstract—Visualizations can help audiences understand the scale of tragedies, such as the consequences of natural disasters, war, genocide, and pandemics. In these cases, a visualization designer’s default behavior may be to focus on communicating quantitative information: numbers, statistics, and trends. However, this may not reflect higher-level affective objectives to inspire their audience to care about an issue, empathize with others, or take action to help those in need. Worse, standard visualizations may conflict with these goals, as statistics can numb emotions and reduce prosocial feelings toward people in need. Designers have developed strategies to increase affective responses through data visualizations, such as blending data narratives and personal narratives about individuals. In this paper, we explore three design strategies for communicating a humanitarian crisis: data-driven, human-driven, or mixed narratives. We conducted an empirical study to explore the effect of statistical numbing in the context of these types of narratives in the format of data videos. In particular, we measure prosocial feelings and behaviors by giving participants the option of donating money as part of the study. We find that human-driven narratives (photographs and stories of individuals) elicited the highest donations and that the mixed narrative combination led to the lowest donations. We discuss the limitations of this study and the implications of pursuing affective objectives and the numbing of empathy in data visualization design.  \nIndex Terms—Data visualization, affective visualizations, anthropographics, statistical numbing.  \n1 INTRODUCTION  \nAdvocacy groups and organizations with a mission to improve the world often use data collected about humanitarian crises. Their goals are to raise awareness of the crisis and elicit responses from their audience: donate money to the cause, share the message with friends and family, or contact policymakers. Unlike many visualizations, the focus is not on achieving cognitive goals (recall facts, analyze trends, evaluate the data, etc.) [1] . Instead, the goals are affective: they aim to influence the audience’s appraisals, attitudes, or values [33] . In some ways, designing communicative visualizations for cognitive goals is more straightforward. There is significant guidance on their construction, significant research on their effectiveness, and there are rarely alternatives to visualizations. Cognitive goals are so entangled with the data itself, that it is hard to argue that visualizations are not nearly always optimal for this task. With affective goals, there is far less guidance and research. More critically, there are other alternatives to data visualizations to achieve affective goals. Photography is often the most popular choice for certain types of advocacy communication [49]  \n• Eytan Adar is with the University of Michigan. Elsie Lee-Robbins conducted this research during her PhD program at the University of Michigan. [E-mail: {elsielee](E-mail: {elsielee|eadar}@umich.edu)[|](E-mail: {elsielee|eadar}@umich.edu)[eadar}@umich.edu](E-mail: {elsielee|eadar}@umich.edu)  \nbut other types of illustration and visual art are also common.  \nIn their efforts to achieve affective goals, organizations and designers use a variety of strategies. One mechanism is to use an emotional appeal (the rhetorical pathos) to incre","cbCaikN3UCMy47C1","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikN3UCMy47C1","pdf",3446563,1,10,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Cognitive vs affective goals\n## Emotional appeal and rhetorical pathos\n## Logical argument and rhetorical logos\n## Combining data-driven and human-driven narratives","[{\"question\":\"Why can standard data visualizations undermine affective objectives?\",\"answer\":\"Statistics can numb emotions and reduce prosocial feelings, making audiences less likely to care, empathize, or act to help those in need.\"},{\"question\":\"What three narrative strategies does the paper compare for communicating a humanitarian crisis?\",\"answer\":\"The paper compares data-driven, human-driven, and mixed narratives in the format of data videos.\"},{\"question\":\"How did narrative type affect participants’ prosocial behavior in the study?\",\"answer\":\"Human-driven narratives elicited the highest donations, while the mixed narrative combination led to the lowest donations.\"}]",1784197688,25,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":27},"evaluating-affective-objectives-statistical-numbing-in-data-visualization","",{"@graph":35,"@context":85},[36,53,68],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/evaluating-affective-objectives-statistical-numbing-in-data-visualization/84692/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-17","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"Why can standard data visualizations undermine affective objectives?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Statistics can numb emotions and reduce prosocial feelings, making audiences less likely to care, empathize, or act to help those in need.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What three narrative strategies does the paper compare for communicating a humanitarian crisis?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The paper compares data-driven, human-driven, and mixed narratives in the format of data videos.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"How did narrative type affect participants’ prosocial behavior in the study?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"Human-driven narratives elicited the highest donations, while the mixed narrative combination led to the lowest donations.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,123,128,131,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":133},"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]