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columntolumn t1_j96tlxh wrote

Reply to comment by 1714alpha in percent of medicare users with 4+ chronic medical conditions [OC] by RompingOtter

Also I don’t understand the use of a diverging color scale. I’ve only use diverging scales in chloropleths if there is a logical middle point (eg 0 if my scale includes neg and positive numbers). I guess in this case it makes it easier to distinguish the value of each county.

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SignificantDigits491 t1_j973ti5 wrote

It provides a larger number of visually distinguishable classes than a single color in different shades.

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Me_Melissa t1_j975ivp wrote

I think it creates an arbitrary line that intuitively feels like, "this is where there's problems, this is where things are good." At that point, whether intentionally or not, the color scale is editorializing the data presentation.

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kkngs t1_j97a3fw wrote

You are correct. It’s not an appropriate use of diverging color scheme. It’s more appropriate if you were looking at something like “change in percent of four condition Medicare recipients between 2010 and 2020”. Then one color would show trending up and the other trending down.

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