Every thematicPro map is a web of cause and effect. This is the legend for reading those links: what a relationship is, which way it points, the verb behind the color, and the numbers riding along with it. Read this first and the rest of the map reads itself.
A map is made of nodes (the things in play: a supply, a price, a policy) joined by links. Each link is a claim that one node moves another. A single link carries four pieces of information, and once you can name all four you can read any link on any map:
| Part | Answers | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Direction badge | Which way does the cause push the effect? | The colored badge on the link. |
| Verb | What kind of push is it? | The word printed next to the arrow. |
| Confidence | How sure is the map? | A number from 0 to 1. |
| Strength | How much does it matter? | A number from 0 to 100. |
The rest of this page walks each one. The whole skill is reading them together in a single breath, which the closing recipe shows you how to do.
The core relationship badge. It tells you which way the cause pushes the effect. Three values. The same sign wears two different words depending on where you are: the public welcome map and the signed-in graph say it differently, but they mean exactly the same thing.
| Sign | Welcome map | Signed-in graph | Plain meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| + | Reinforcing (+) | reinforces | Same direction. More cause means more effect. Less means less. |
| − | Opposing (-) | dampens | Opposite direction. More cause means less effect. |
| ? | Linked | relates | Direction unknown. A real link, but the data did not settle which way it pushes. |
⚠️ Read "Linked / relates" carefully. It is not "unrelated" and not "proven cause." It means associated, direction unconfirmed. A lead, not a verdict.
Six verbs collapse into the three signs above. The sign tells you the direction; the verb tells you the kind of influence. The verb is printed next to the arrow on the map. Click any description in the last column to see what that verb actually does, with an example from a real map.
| Verb | Sign | What it really says |
|---|---|---|
increases | + | |
enables | + | |
decreases | − | |
prevents | − | |
triggers | text | |
correlates | ? |
Numbers and tags that travel with a relationship or node. The two that matter most are easy to confuse, so keep them apart: confidence is how sure, strength is how much it matters. A link can be very sure and barely matter, or matter enormously on thin evidence.
| Badge | Range | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| confidence | 0 to 1 | How sure. How much evidence backs the link. Higher = more sources agreed. |
| strength | 0 to 100 | How much it matters. How heavily the link weighs in the map's paths. |
| Cause → Effect | tag | Direction marker. Which node is the cause, which is the effect. |
| Center / Cause / Effect | role | The node's role relative to the one you're looking at. |
| why it's here | tag | The best evidenced path from this node back to the map's center. |
Not relationship badges. Build complete and 1-level preview describe the map's status, not a link. Don't read them as part of any relationship.
Three examples from three different thematicPro maps. Each one plays out a small piece of causal flow. Watch the links draw, then read each with the recipe: direction from the color, kind from the verb, certainty from the number. Same four-part reading, very different subjects.
Four nodes lifted straight from the Mark Spain real estate map, each link handing off to the next.
Read it left to right: more economic uncertainty dampens buyer demand (an Opposing link, orange), more buyer demand reinforces existing home sales, and more existing home sales strongly reinforces transaction volume, a link the map is 0.78 sure about. Two Reinforcing greens, one Opposing orange, three different confidence levels: the whole legend in a single row.
From the data centers map. Every link here is Reinforcing (+) and green, yet the verbs are not interchangeable. Watch what the colors hide.
All three arrows are green Reinforcing links, so the direction never changes: more cause, more effect. The verbs are the story. First a dial (increases): more AI compute pushes power demand up by degree. Then two gates (enables): power demand makes construction possible, and construction makes leasing possible. Same sign, same color, three readings. The verb is where the nuance lives, which is why it earns its own column.
From the sargassum map. Causal flow is not always a line. Here a single node pushes three different effects, each its own way at once.
Read each spoke on its own. The same sargassum beach influx triggers a hydrogen sulfide event (a one-time spark, green +), dampens tourist arrivals (Opposing, orange), and reinforces beach cleanup cost (green +). One node, three outgoing links, and the color and verb can differ on every one. That is causal flow: follow each arrow out, read its own badge, and never assume the next link points the same way as the last.
From the bipolar disorder map. The two links left out so far: a hard prevents and a careful correlates. Notice the second link is drawn dashed, with no arrowhead.
The top link is a block: an EEG/fNIRS test prevents misdiagnosis, an Opposing orange arrow with a clear direction. The bottom link is the careful one. Personality traits correlates with depressive episodes, so it shows as Linked: drawn dashed, capped with dots instead of an arrow, because the map will not commit to which way it points. The number, 0.27, is still confidence: how sure the association is real, not which way it runs. Read it as a lead, never a verdict.
Put the four parts together and a link becomes a single sentence. Say it out loud and you will never misread one again.
Say it out loud. "More [cause] [verb] [effect], which the map is [confidence] sure about."
Example: "More renewable supply dampens wholesale price, which the map is 0.81 sure about." Direction from the badge, kind from the verb, certainty from the confidence number.