You’re way more likely to change your mind about the economy if you see a simple chart than if you read the exact same info in a sentence.
April 13, 2026
Original Paper
Visual vs. textual communication: Impact on firms’ inflation expectations and central bank credibility
SSRN · 6560091
The Takeaway
Research shows that business owners adjust their expectations for inflation much more sharply when data is presented visually. While the effect is powerful, it is also fleeting, suggesting that the 'vibe' of a graph carries more weight than the actual facts it contains.
From the abstract
We causally identify how firms’ inflation expectations and their trust in the central bank respond to information with the same relevant content presented through different formats in a desinflationary environment. Simple text and visual communication effectively influence inflation expectations, while complex text messaging fails to yield similar effects. Firms exposed to visual representations of information adjust their expectations significantly more than those receiving equivalent informati