Graphics and/or statistics may be used to misrepresent data in several areas of industry. There are misrepresentations in the areas of sales, medical research, insurance, even when buying a house. The more a person thinks about it there can technically be misrepresented data in any area graphics and statistics are used. There are two different ways data can be misrepresented and that is intentionally and unintentionally.

Many companies out there do this intentionally in order to receive a consumers business. Sales companies when trying to get a consumers business will show him/her the parts of the graph and statistics that make the company themselves look good which makes the consumer want to use them. Such as how many they sold of said product over the last three months.

What they don't show is the entire graph which will most likely not make them look very appealing. For example, the last three months was the company's busiest time of year. If the company showed the consumer the entire graph for the year then the consumer may decide to go elsewhere.

When this type of misrepresentation occurs it is called a personal bias by the company. An unintentional misrepresentation of the data would be human error. Human error or accidental bias can occur when collecting the data. Such as there can be a misrepresentation of the sample that was used to collect the data. Misrepresentation in this case would happen if a specific sampling of a population was being used for a study but, not all persons within said sample was able to have data collected from him/her this would create a misrepresentation (Utts,).

Misrepresentations whether intentional or unintentional have been done in politics, medical research, advertising, sales companies, even the media. People in these areas sometimes bend the truth so to speak by leaving out specific details, showing incomplete graphs and statistics in order to make the people want to either vote for them, or buy what their selling.