How can a claim be tested?
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– validity
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– reliability
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– accuracy of the procedure, including random and systematic error
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● Sample selection
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● Sample sizes
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● Advertising with evidence-based claims
– health claims on food packaging
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● Advertising with evidence-based claims
– claims about the efficacy of a product
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● Placebos
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● Double-blind trials
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● Control groups
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● Societal and economic
– predicting variations in climate
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● Societal and economic
– suggesting remedies for health conditions
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● Societal and economic
– manipulating statistical data
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● Correlation can be misinterpreted as causation.
the Hawthorne effect
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● Correlation can be misinterpreted as causation.
1991 study that linked hormone replacement therapy to coronary heart disease
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● Correlation can be misinterpreted as causation.
the Mozart Effect on child development
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● scientific debate and how it is portrayed in the mainstream media
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● ‘hypothesis’
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● ‘belief’
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● ‘law’
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● compare the difference in reporting between a peer-reviewed journal article and a scientific article published in popular media
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● conflicts of interest can result in scientific evidence being suppressed, misinterpreted or misrepresented and discuss measures to counteract such conflicts:
– tobacco industry and lung cancer
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● conflicts of interest can result in scientific evidence being suppressed, misinterpreted or misrepresented and discuss measures to counteract such conflicts:
– fossil fuel industry and climate change
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