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PocketLady



Registered: 01/18/10
Posts: 1,773
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Scientific studies and bias
#21739749 - 05/30/15 04:09 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Scientific studies form the basis of many of our beliefs. But how reliable are they and can they be manipulated? It's important to realise that all studies have to receive funding from a person or organisation. Most of the time, the organisation sponsoring the study has a vested interest in the results.
Let's take a look at medical studies for example. Many medical studies are paid for by pharmaceutical companies, often wishing to demonstrate that their latest drug or treatment is safe and effective. But when the results don't go the way the sponsor wants it to go, they don't have to publish the results.
I read an article last year which cites that the results of 1/3 of large medical studies done in the US remain unpublished.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/29/scientists-fears-over-unpublished-drug-trials
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/05/scandal-drugs-trials-withheld-doctors-tamiflu
If this is happening with drug studies, it begs the question as to the bias that exists in sponsorship across the scientific world. And that is not only in selecting of studies to fund, but what happens during the study itself, what happens to the results at the end of the study and whether they are published or not.
-------------------- Love is from the infinite, and will remain until eternity. The seeker of love escapes the chains of birth and death. Tomorrow, when resurrection comes, The heart that is not in love will fail the test. ~ Rumi The day we start giving Love instead of seeking Love, we will have re-written our whole destiny. ~ Swami Chinmayanada Saraswatir
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
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Re: Scientific studies and bias [Re: PocketLady]
#21739800 - 05/30/15 04:37 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Real science is trustworthy. Data manipulation by paid whores is something else entirely.
How do we know which is which? Here is one indicator: studies that make no one any money (directly) and have been around for a while can be trusted. Why? Because other scientists get rewarded for showing flaws (not the same as exposing fraud).
Thus only the most inscrutable (disregarding drugs or other high dollar consumable - cultural, monetary & political pressure sometimes prevail) studies remain.
Summation: current scientific outlooks on the physical world are the most accurate ever derived and yet, are still amenable to future changes as more data comes in. This is flexibility and science never says "This is ultimate Truth!"
Studies which are likely to make someone Big Bucks are obviously more suspect due to human character weakness, but not necessarily false by default. In the case where there is fraud, it is not the fault of the science per se, but solely by the dishonest presenters giving false information.
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


Registered: 10/31/04
Posts: 21,407
Loc: Building 7
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Spoken like a True Believer.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
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thebitterbuffalo26
Fartyr



Registered: 04/18/15
Posts: 555
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 7 years, 7 months
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Yeah this is easy to figure out, it's called peer review. I don't know a whole lot about it, but the scientific community only accepts someone's findings if they can be corroborated and duplicated.
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


Registered: 10/31/04
Posts: 21,407
Loc: Building 7
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Quote:
thebitterbuffalo26 said: Yeah this is easy to figure out, it's called peer review. I don't know a whole lot about it, but the scientific community only accepts someone's findings if they can be corroborated and duplicated.
Don't worry, OC doesn't know much about it either. He is a true believer, he believes in the concept of science and the notion of honesty and accountability among scientists.
Unfortunately, that's not even close to reality, we could go through various "research" projects and see just who is funding them and why, and the whole notion of "pure research" would be just that.
A notion.
Hey cool jumping spider those things are amazing...
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
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DieCommie

Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts"
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quinn
some kinda love


Registered: 01/02/10
Posts: 6,799
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Quote:
LunarEclipse said: Hey cool jumping spider those things are amazing...
glad to hear your love came back for you
-------------------- dripping with fantasy
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Kurt
Thinker, blinker, writer, typer.

Registered: 11/26/14
Posts: 1,688
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Re: Scientific studies and bias [Re: DieCommie]
#21741194 - 05/30/15 01:59 PM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
DieCommie said: "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts"
That's a good idea. What would you say that quote means?
I'll trade a quote; David Hume.
"We are apt to imagine that we could discover these effects by the mere operation of our reason, without experience. We fancy, that were we brought on a sudden into this world, we could at first have inferred that one billiard ball would communicate motion to another upon impulse, and that we needed not to have waited for the event, in order to pronounce with certainty concerning it. Such is the influence of custom, that, where it is strongest, it not only covers our natural ignorance but even conceals itself, and seems not to take place, merely because it is found in the highest degree."
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


Registered: 10/31/04
Posts: 21,407
Loc: Building 7
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Re: Scientific studies and bias [Re: DieCommie]
#21741735 - 05/30/15 04:36 PM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
DieCommie said: "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts"
Belief IS ignorance. It's like saying "Real science is trustworthy." A belief in something that isn't what it appears to be. So the converse would be true, faked science is of course excluded. Just as the religious zealot who believes their God is the real one, and the other Gods are fakes.
It's called BIAS.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
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secondorder
Amanda Hug'n'kiss



Registered: 04/05/15
Posts: 532
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Re: Scientific studies and bias [Re: PocketLady]
#21743995 - 05/31/15 06:44 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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There is a very real problem of bias and vested interest in science, there is no denying it. Having said that, there are a few mechanisms that science uses to foolproof data. Peer review has already been mentioned, but sometimes peer review is also biased. Probably the most important verification mechanisms if science is repeatability. Every time you heat up tungsten to a certain temperature, it glows; every time you drop an object in a vacuum near the surface of the earth, it accelerates towards the center of the earth at 9.8 meters per second squared, every time you cool water to a certain temperature, it turns into a solid. You can repeat these experiments yourselves, without the rigour of peer review and academic scrutiny. Every time you turn on your computer or switch a light switch you are performing a scientific experiment. The repeatability of an experiment by different people in different locations is one of the best verification methods that science has to offer.
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