Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks

Can you remember the first time you drank coffee? Probably not. But can you remember your first kiss? I bet you can! So why is it easier to remember one event, but not the other?

This is because we have been conditioned to pick up and remember unusual events and forget everything else. Hence the way we remember and process information is necessarily biased, because we don’t treat all information equally.

But it’s not only our memory that influences our biases; other factors can lead to mistakes in our thinking and decision making.

One such flaw in our thinking is our tendency to invent relationships between events where none actually exist.

For example, consider the fact that improvements in medical conditions can often be attributed not to a treatment, but to the natural progression of an illness, or regression to the mean. So if you had an illness and your symptoms were at their peak, and then went to, say, a homeopath for treatment, you would soon be getting better.

We naturally assume that the visit caused the improvement, but in reality our treatment simply coincided with the natural return from extreme illness to normal health.

In addition, we are prejudiced by our prior beliefs and those of the “herd.” This was made explicit in one US study that brought together and examined people who supported the death penalty and those who opposed it. In the experiment, one half of each group was given a piece of evidence that supported their belief and a piece of evidence that challenged it, while the other half in each group received contrary evidence.

Interestingly, every single group identified flaws in the research methods for the evidence that challenged their pre-existing beliefs, but dutifully ignored the flaws in the research that supported their view! What’s more, this experiment didn’t just study irrational buffoons: the results suggest that we all behave this way.

Now that you have the knowledge to understand what qualifies as good science, the last few blinks will explore the ways in which science is misused in the media and the drastic repercussions.