Data Ethics, Dashboards, and Presenting Death

Content warning: death, suicide

This post is going to discuss suicide and information presentation around suicide. If you are at risk, please stop here. You are not a number or a statistic. You are a life, a beautiful one, likely feeling a number of things. Please don’t dismiss it. There is life to live and you can:

US: 1-800-273-8255 

UK: 116 123

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Suicide is one of those topics we do not discuss. I interpreted many sessions addressing it, I’ve held friends who considered it, and yes, as early as 9 years old, I’ve seen the devastating consequences of it. When you handle this subject directly, you hear the stories, the suffering that people have endured, and the fragility we all as humans have. Often, you’re trained and prepared as an interpreter. You rarely are when it’s a personal connection.

Data, unfortunately, removes the human element. It makes it too easy to fall into the cycle of analysis, creating charts, drawing conclusions, and – just as quickly as you would a quarterly report – putting it out to the world.

Except, study after study shows publicizing deaths from suicide increases its occurrence.

Please take a moment and think: this is one of these cases where providing information risks harm. Yes, even this blog post risks harm. Demographers and clinicians know drawing too much attention to suicide reduces the taboo and increases the likelihood someone taking their life. (Again: if this is you, please call one of the numbers above, get out of your house, or beg a friend to come sit with you. Things do get better, I promise.)

Suicide is not a topic to treat lightly. You want to treat this with care. Here’s how: research, learn, then viz.

Research

If you find a topic and wonder what you should know about it, including the controversies associated with it, go to Google and type in the following:

Journalism standards (topic)

Doing so will often result in AP style guides, considerations, and even tips. Examples like Reporting on Suicide and Project Semicolon provide ideas on how to present and message your analysis. It takes 2 minutes and can make a huge impact. Check at least a few sources to find common threads and areas of divergence. If you find a lot of divergence…keep exploring and find out why.

Also take a look at nonprofits that focus on people who would be affected by your topic – in this case, suicide. Pay close attention to word and color choices. Observe headlines and the words we use – recycle these verbatim if you must. In this case, commit and successful are not good choices – they often encourage a loss of life. It’s not a good time to use red or black or any of those other emotional colors that get a rise or potentially encourage specific acts. We often use red for violence and black for despair. You are potentially talking to someone at a very precarious moment in their life. Keep your message in mind and know that you can do harm by trying to get attention or presenting things too coldly or harshly.

Most recommend providing a section calling out the warning signs. Suicide is preventable, as Project Semicolon has seen. Most plans will fall through with a phone call or a little kindness. You, dear reader, could save a life with your viz. Include the signs. Also consider showing data from Project Semicolon – of those who chose to survive and tell their stories so others may live.

Learn

There are certain ways we present information at work. Ideally, when we visualize sensitive data that involves human life, we do so in ways that acknowledge what we’re seeing. Work provides a contained audience segment that typically shares a set of values in a confined space. When we communicate in closed spaces (such as work or healthcare), our effects are typically confined to a small group of people who can usually email us or stop by our office if they have questions or concerns.

The message and the responsibility changes dramatically when you publish to a platform like Tableau Public. At this point, you are acting as a journalist and creating content for the masses. Even if you’re practicing. People will take your work and analysis as fact. I know: I published a dashboard revealing some of the intimacies of hospice. It has landed on at least one cancer patient discussion board and in the hands of countless nurses and providers – we made that decision with this very hope.

A key part of learning data visualization is how to share a message. If you are visualizing human lives, you have the capacity to do harm. What kind of world do you want to create? Learn what you can. If you cannot meet the task in the time afforded, pick it up later. The lesson here is compassion and ethics. Take pause, hover over your data points, and remember those lives were lost. We should not risk any more.

Viz

Ideally, you’ve researched and learned. You’ve crafted your visualization and are considering sharing it. Wait.

Look at your topic – suicide. If someone is considering suicide, have YOU provided an immediate access option to help? Is it clearly visible, actionable, and accessible? It should not be hidden. If anything, it should be massive. This is your chance to help someone turn it around.

Consider content warnings. This goes for your tweet to share, but also may include a popup (with help info and warning signs) overlaying the dashboard. Ask how this looks to someone affected. Take a look at your conclusions. Read it like a family member would or someone in agony. Is this the message you want to share?

We live in a world that is more connected than ever before. People on the internet will potentially find your work. In this case, it could mean the difference of life or death. When we practice data visualization in a public space, we are accountable for what we share.

What world will you create?