Scientific Studies: How Scientific are they?
Scientific studies should be used and are great for research and making conclusions and finding about things. However, they may not always be reliable. There are many reasons why they might not be reliable including a small sample size. If the sample size is too small, then we can’t make conclusions because it doesn’t truly represent the whole sample. Another reason scientific studies may not be reliable is because it hasn’t actually been tested on humans. Sometimes scientific studies will make conclusions about something when we are not yet sure its effect on actual humans, but only from an animal such as rats. Often times the title will be misleading to attract attention and get published and make news headlines, but doesn’t truly reflect what the study is about. Also, scientific studies are rarely done twice. It doesn’t pay or get any kind of recognition to repeat a scientific study once one has already been done. However, they really should be repeated because there could be outliers in the study that make the results unreliable.
Oliver makes light of the fact that there are some “scientific studies” that have crazy headlines and twist the truth in a major way. He makes fun of an article stating that “Smelling farts cures cancer.” He went on to explore the article and see where that claim came from. The study never mentions either of the topics, but instead says that “disulfide compounds are a useful pharmacological tool.” This highlights the news influence on scientific studies and how they stretch the truth. He also brings up the concept of P-hacking, a statistical formula that can find correlations between two variables. But, just because there appears to be a correlation between two variables doesn’t mean it is true. For example cabbage and innie belly buttons were found to be related. Oliver is very critical of how small findings are blown up by the media to make news stories. He is very skeptical of scientific studies because of the lack of repeat studies, twisting the headlines and small or inaccurate sample sizes. He also points out sometimes that studies are funded by companies who may instill bias.
I have heard some things where I question whether it is a really scientific or not. One thing when I was younger that I heard was that is physically impossible to lick your elbow. Of course, after this I immediately tried to lick my elbow, but wasn’t convinced if that was true science or not. I felt like it would be possible for someone to lick their elbow even thought I could not. I had to look it up. I found many results and pictures of people actually licking their elbows, but found it was often on sites that weren’t that reliable. However, there were some videos and websites such as national geographic that made me think I was correct. I’m still not 100% but, I do think it may be possible.
A good way as you are finding research to check to make sure things are reliable is check to see the if the sources are listed and also check through any pieces of data you come across. It’s important to look beyond the title because it may be misleading. Just because you see a title that makes a conclusion, doesn’t mean you should use it in research. Checking variables, the organization that conducts the study, sample size and identifying any bias there might be in the study are also helpful tools to make sure the study is reliable.
