The graphs show standard error, not standard deviation. Standard error is standard deviation divided by the square root of the sample size. It's included on graphs to show which differences are statistically significant - it does not give a sense of the variability within a group.
Cohen's d counts standard deviations (d=.18 means that the two means are .18 standard deviations apart), so there is actually a lot of overlap between the groups.
The latest SMBC made me laugh a bit, so I thought I'd bring extra LessWrong attention to it.
I don't know if pointing out the subject of the comic in advance will make it more or less funny. Knowing that might be more data regarding that recent study claiming that spoilers don't actually spoil stuff...