Beware those scientific studies -- most are wrong, researcher warns

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Always confirm details with multiple papers-one research study alone isn’t enough to prove anything. Also beware of studies with small sample sizes-it is also very difficult to prove anything with these. These are sort of cardinal rules of research.

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As soon as I hear " new research shows " I stop reading

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Including this one?

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we must research research about research more to be sure research is accurate

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Same here. As soon as I hear the words, “studies have shown” my guard goes up. At least in the field of psychology, most of those studies are very artificial and have little to do with real life. It is impossible to account for all the variables in such studies.

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I recall being in a psychology class, and the professor was talking about how one of his experiments had gotten a very bad review. The thesis of his study was that most people find competitive situations very uncomfortable, and when they are put in these situations they take steps to get out of them. I don’t know how you could set up this kind of experiment without it being very artificial. Then this professor gleefully told us how he had appealed this bad review and had gotten a much better assessment. My point is that the professor was being competitive when he appealed the review. I’ll concede that in some competitive situations people take steps to get out of them. But reality is more nuanced than that. There are situations where people are very competitive, and they like being that way. Witness how much of our time is spent viewing athletic contests. I would say there is a spectrum of competitiveness that spans many different situations, and we could manufacture studies endlessly to support any position. A lot of these studies are set out to support an agenda.

I agree with you guys here! :slight_smile:I thought I would put a small comment here…
In my university, the professors always tell me to look into research studies, but tell me that they are essays: so there sides to it. Every essay argues the point that they want to tell. So we use the essays to support an idea that we want to write. As an English major, the English professors told me, “Research papers are interesting to read, but they don’t show a whole concept of an idea. So use them as helpful guides, but not as truth.”

In a typical essay format, it’s usually 5 paragraphs- one introduction, 2 or 3 body paragraphs, and conclusion. One of the things in an introduction is a ‘thesis’, which is basically a sentence that summarize your point of view, not truth. So it’s hard for me to take a paper and say it is true for sure. Some of the words used in a thesis is “demonstrates”, “explains”, “states”, etc.- so not like ‘true’, or ‘clear’, etc.I remember reading 5 essays on same topic on “The Mill on the Floss” but they were all stating different things. Essays give interesting outputs on an idea, but they might not be 100% in fact.

Wishing you all a happy and peaceful day <3

That’s why I like mathematics. They even get physics wrong a lot. Math, on the other hand, is logically consistent. Math isn’t a science, right? There’s no scientific method or studies. Just proofs and stuff. It’s more like an art.

I think physics involves a lot of mathematics and equations.

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said John Ioannidis, professor of medicine at Stanford University, who specializes in the study of scientific studies.

science!