Bad Science

Question 1

What is “Blue Monday”?

Answer 1

A name given to a day in January claimed to be the most depressing day of the year - sponsored by sky.

Question 2

What is the evidence to support blue Monday?

Answer 2

• Samaritans - peak time.

Question 3

What is the celebrity worship scale?

Answer 3

Created by the British Journal 2002 (McCutcheon and Horan).

Question 4

What is the celebrity worship scale misinterpreted as?

Answer 4

• Celebrity worship syndrome - this dow not exist, daily mail misinterpretation.

Question 5

What caused the vaccine scare?

Answer 5

• Wakefield study of 12 people - small sample size, findings identify patterns that don’t exist and not repeatable results.

Question 6

What did Wakefield’s study result in?

Answer 6

2002 - 4-5 stories a day.
2004 - Mumps highest recorded.
2005 - MMR vaccine uptake increase of 73%.

Question 7

What does it mean for the media to be “balanced”?

Answer 7

Concerned in media with not picking a side to seem neutral - but in scientific situations gives audience false information with little guidance.

Question 8

What does balance outweigh?

Answer 8

Science.

Question 9

What did Swami claim in 2010?

Answer 9

That scientists knew vaccines caused autism.

Question 10

What are 9/11 conspirators associated with?

Answer 10

1. Belief in other theories.
2. Believing these things anyway.
3. Defying authority.
4. Political cynicism.
5. Agreeableness.

Question 11

Give an example of how celebrity endorsements influence media coverage for science?

Answer 11

Kylie Minogue breast cancer rise in monogram bookings.

Question 12

What is meant by Pseudoscience?

Answer 12

A collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method.

Question 13

What makes experimentations valid?

Answer 13

1. Take place in a controlled environment.
2. Accessible to the public.
3. Contain peer accountability.
4. Have an experts opinion.

Question 14

What makes experimentation not valid?

Answer 14

1. Low grade evidence.
2. Anecdotes.
3. No controls.
4. Secrecy.
5. Contradicted by well established scientific knowledge.
6. Nonsense balance .
7. Bad statistics.
8. Overemphasising credentials.
9. Cherry picking.

Question 15

Why do people believe fake science?

Answer 15

• See patterns where there’s just randomness.
• See correlation rather than a causal relationship.
• Believe all media reports.
• Assess truth based on their prior beliefs.

Question 16

How can we avoid bad science?

Answer 16

• Check who funded it.
• Where did it come from?
• Orignial source.
• Is it balanced?
• Is it news worthy?