Comments on: Francesca recommends a book: Critical thinking edition!

By: class-factotum

class-factotum — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:05:15 +0000

My favorite stupid journalist example: A few years ago, the Austin American-Statesman reported that because X% of the blood samples taken at the UT Health Center were HIV positive, X% of the entire UT student body was HIV positive.

No consideration of the fact that students who go to the health center are not necessarily representative of the entire student body (they go because they are sick or need BCP) or that the ones who have blood drawn are really not representative (because they are sick enough to need blood drawn).

Reporters should have to pass a test showing they understand probability and statistics before they are allowed to do anything with numbers.

By: Melissa B.

Melissa B. — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:06:00 +0000

DaisyJ, I feel your pain. It’s amazing how you can get people to take even the weirdest claim as fact when you say “they’ve done studies showing X.” That kind of phrasing drives me absolutely up the wall. Who are “they”? What kind of “studies” did they do? What was the methodology? What kind of data did they collect? Where was the study published? “They’ve done studies” is not real information!

By: Twistie

Twistie — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:04:33 +0000

I love Junkfood Science! As a longtime sciencephobe, it’s helped me take baby steps in understanding how to read results of studies critically and decide which information is helpful and which is hysterical skewing of flawed evidence. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to figure out what to take seriously in health reportage.

Now to start reading that book.

daisyj, I think I like your grandfather.

By: daisyj

daisyj — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:20:56 +0000

I haven’t read this book, but I definitely agree with the principle. As a biologist myself, I can’t tell you how infuriated I get by the amount of pseudoscience and statistical manipulation that gets passed off as facts, and the lack of critical thinking that people apply to interpreting them. Or, as my grandfather always says, don’t let the other guy do the math for you.