**The *Visualization Vibes* project is a collaboration between Drs. Michelle Morgenstern, Amy Rae Fox, Graham Jones, and Arvind Satyanarayan.** It is the first in a series of papers exploring non-data readings of information visualizations. The second paper can be found here: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/23HYX
**CITATION**
M. Morgenstern*, A.R. Fox*, G. Jones, and A. Satyanarayan. Visualization
Vibes: The Socio-Indexical Function of Visualization Design. IEEE Trans-
actions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 32(1), 2026
**indicates equal contribution*
**RESEARCH QUESTION**
Do visualization convey more than the data they explicitly encode?
**APPROACH** Drawing on theory and methods from the study of language attitudes in linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics, we address our research question in the context of information visualizations via a collection of semi-structured interviews.
**FINDINGS** Yes, much like spoken and written natural language, our evidence demonstrates that visualizations convey more than the data they encode. Specifically we offer evidence that visualizations can convey ***social meaning*: inferences about the social provenance of a visualization artifact.**
**IMPLICATIONS**
1. Social meaning is different than semantico-referential/propositional (i.e. "data") meaning.
2. Visualizations convey social meaning via combination of their design features and data.
3. Individuals make social inferences in the context of their individual lived experiences, including their socio-culturally grounded identities.
4. Social inferences have the potential to extert influence on how an individual engages with a visualization.
**CONTRIBUTION**
This paper contributes a conceptual model of the socio-indexical function of visualization, describing a heretofore unindentified form of meaning that readers construct when engaging with information visualizations.
**MATERIALS**
The OSF repository for this project includes a pdf of the accepted manuscript presented at IEEE VIS 2025 (published in TVCG 32(1), 2026), as well as supplemental materials, including paper figures, interview guide, stimulus reference, and participant demographic information.
