How Conspiracy Theories Work
Arguing with believers about the merits of a pet conspiracy theory is ordinarily a waste of time. It's too easy to ignore or discount any evidence that contradicts their beliefs.
Tag: bad information
Alcohol Isn’t a Health Food
More likely the hope is to increase awareness of the risks, and encourage drinkers to limit consumption.
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The NIH, Corporate Sponsors, and Research
So if some enterprising MD or PhD were to show with a proposal for research designed to prove that drinking has definite health benefits, the industry will throw money at it.
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Who’s Looking Out for You?
Sometimes powerful business leaders sound like drunk drivers or corner drug dealers. Rationalizing, externalizing, minimizing…
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When Alcohol Pays for Research
After all, you can’t afford to stop selling it. That’s not how you get promoted. What you need is science that seems to confirm your biases.
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Smoking Addiction
CDC gives cigarettes credit for more than 480,000 deaths a year, in the US alone.
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Cancer, Cannabis, and the FDA
The issue isn’t about getting stoned. It’s about whether the product is actually benefiting the customer who purchased it.
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The Inoculation Effect
Our goal is to reframe the discussion in a way that supports rather than undermines change.
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Fighting Pseudoscience: Critical Thinking
We need the knowledge and skill to evaluate claims of effectiveness as medical treatments– for instance, to determine whether the research that supports that claim is solid, or if it’s unreliable.
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Celebrity Testimonials
It’s an illness that at different times seems to respond to everything and nothing. As in ‘everything works for someone, and nothing works for everyone.’
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Psychonautics
It’s the sort of evidence that convinced authorities to greatly expand access to opioids for chronic pain patients.
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Understanding Research: Meta-analysis
If Ginormous Study #1 happens to be flawed methodologically, those errors will carry right over into the meta-analysis process.
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