Okay, all you visual-perception, goatee-stroking philosophers out there, let me know what you think!
Playing with the Shape of Data (http://www.visguy.com/2010/05/31/playing-with-the-shape-of-data/)
it really is way more obvious if you use bars instead of circles...
i never thought much about that but it shows once again that a different presentation may give a totally different feeling about the same data. (man i really am happy that i'm not into marketing :P )
i think that is cause the radius only doubles when the area is 4times as big. so it seems there is not that much of a difference when using circles. maybe numbers of unemployed should be shown that way? would be mor positive ^^
It gets even worse if you add the 3rd dimension.
Note also the influence of the font size.
I noticed also that you were speaking about circles. The first view seems to reflect much more the real proportion.
That's worth a deeper study, to find a factor like for the perceived luminicence of colors (http://www.visguy.com/2008/10/31/make-your-text-stand-out/).