This is Why I Say, “Don’t Believe Everything You Read!”
This week’s video is about don’t believe everything you read.
Much of the research reported in academic journals is crap. “Why?” you ask.
Well here are some reasons:
(1) Undefined or undisclosed group of people
First, the results frequently come from an undefined or undisclosed group of people. For example, a cancer drug for breast cancer was tested on men, not women. This is frequently left out of the articles written about this type of research.
(2) Based on incorrect assumptions
Second, the results of a scientific study are frequently based on incorrect assumptions. For example, the statistical tests used to study a disease require certain assumptions that are frequently not met; hence, the results of the study are bogus.
This happens all the time. It is a very big problem.
(3) The study is not replicable
Third, scientific studies use a group of people such that the study is not replicable, so they are not reliable. Very often it is impossible to get the data from the study to see if it was analyzed correctly.
I remember when I was a kid, I loved maraschino cherries. But, scientific research came out that the red dye number two that gave them their color could cause cancer. Then, a few years later another scientific study came out that said the first study was wrong. Then, it was shown that it did, in fact, cause cancer. This went back and forth for some time.
(4) Significance level
Fourth, many statistical studies claim that they are significant at say a 5% level. This probably means to a non-statistician that there is a 95% chance that the results are correct. This is a completely wrong understanding of what the 5% means.
Use It or Lose It – Don’t Believe Everything You Read
Get into the habit of being skeptical about any research you read.
Don’t just go out and change your life on the basis of one study.
Don’t believe everything you read!
When to Use It
Whenever you read about a scientific study, you just cannot blindly accept the results – don’t believe everything you read. You may want to check with an expert to see if the results are valid.
For example, smoking cigarettes is now well established because so many independent studies have come to the same conclusion.
But, just because you read an article in the newspaper that “cashew nuts” can aggravate a certain disease, check before you change your behavior.
What Do You Think?
Have you ever stopped doing something because you read it was bad for you? If you have, let us know about it in the space below.
Until next time, behave and as always…Prime Your Pump!
–Howie
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Interesting information. Hope you are enjoying maraschino cherries!
There are three types of liars in the world – lawyers, politicians, and statisticians. And if you want to add a fourth, include advertising. Maybe I’m a cynic, but that’s the way the world has always worked. So bear with me, I am climbing onto my soap box and will preach to the multitudes.
I am reminded of an Air Force attempt (back in the late 1970’s) to numerically rank each individual officer under a general’s command, assigning a number from one (best) to, say 100 (complete dunderhead), based on job skill and performance. Such factors as level of experience, degree of difficulty of the specific job, and length of time in the job somehow got totally overlooked. So you are comparing the guy who sits at a console, finger on a button ready to destroy a missile during a test flight if it deviates from the planned flight path, with the guy who’s in charge of the base laundry facility. Then the general’s office sent each officer a letter informing them of their ranking….but one had to interpret carefully what was said. If you were in “the top 85% of the officers under my command” you might think ‘damn, I’m good. Only 15 guys ahead of me’. WRONG! There are 85 guys ahead of you. The results were so skewed and misinterpreted that he ranking concept only lasted one year before being dumped into the trash where it belonged.
You see this kind of false statistical crap in TV ads all the time. Drug companies love to pitch their latest creation by comparing it to the competition. “In clinical tests, our new drug CURITOL proved 40% more effective than JAMITUP (our competitor)”. If you can’t see the several layers of idiocy here, then you never graduated from first grade.
I have never subscribed to any scientific journals for exactly the four reasons that you mention. Just because a survey or study result is published in a journal does not mean it’s the absolute truth. And what’s scary is that the faulted study gets listed as a source or reference document in somebody else’s article the next year, which perpetuates the misinformation. Bullshit squared!
OK, off the soap box and back to reality. In other words, my IGNORE button (otherwise known as Mute on the clicker) is again fully operational.