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What Do Scientific Studies Show?

#1
C C Offline

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/201...ore-143114

EXCERPT: As any regular reader of news will know, popular media report “scientific results” nearly every day. They come delivered in news reports and opinion pieces, and are often used to make a variety of points concerning important matters like health, parenting, education, even spirituality and self-knowledge. How seriously should we take them?

For example, since at least 2004, we have been reading about studies showing that “vitamin D may prevent arthritis.”  A 2010 Johns Hopkins Health Alert announced, “During the past decade, there’s been an explosion of research suggesting that vitamin D plays a significant role in joint health and that low levels may be a risk factor for rheumatologic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.” However, in February 2013, a more rigorous study called the previous studies into serious question.  Similarly, despite many studies suggesting that taking niacin to increase  “good cholesterol” would decrease heart attacks, a more rigorous study showed the niacin to have no effect.

Such reports have led many readers to question the reliability of science.  And given the way the news is often reported, they seem to have a point.  What use are scientific results if they are so frequently reversed?  But the problem is typically not with the science but with the reporting....
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#2
Yazata Offline
I'm not sure what 'studies' are, exactly. Nor am I sure what makes a study 'scientific'.

They aren't typically experiments. They seem to more commonly be surveys, often combined with a whole lot of tendentious and often misleading interpretation designed to support the author's pre-existing views. We often see 'studies' in the so-called 'social sciences', where they are often highly politicized.
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