The Nonfiction Book Club

[Poopadoop]

I do somewhat think you're underestimating the human bias involved in wanting false results from experiments though.


One of the first things I remember learning in my stats class was the nonsense that is things like hair care products that say things like "90% of women agree" then give the stats on who they asked etc and measuring what those results actually mean, almost nothing.

That goes on, but the example you give is hardly science. Just because someone played hard and fast with the data to market their hair product doesn't mean that's standard practice for real scientists.

[Savy]

That goes on, but the example you give is hardly science. Just because someone played hard and fast with the data to market their hair product doesn't mean that's standard practice for real scientists.

Yeah it wasn't meant to be it was just a good example of how you can say things which aren't true in ways which make them sound plausible. You will know better than me obviously but there are plenty of pressures on professors, universities, etc to get things done be that getting funding, things published etc. All of which are good enough reasons for people to manipulate things to their advantage.