False Information In Research

There are many instances where false information that is gathered is believed to be true which causes a plethora of problems. Such problems could include incorrect publication of information to the public, false information being taught in schools and even false information being relied on for medical purposes. All of these occurrences could be detrimental to the proper functioning of the society as a whole. For example, an abstract written by John P. A. Loannidis who works in the department of Hygiene and Epidemiology for the University of Ioannina, stated “most public research findings are false”, Loannidis went on to use that phrase as the title of his work. In Goldstein’s piece The Experience of Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach written …show more content…
The probability that a research claim is true may depend on study power and bias, the number of other studies on the same question, and, importantly, the ratio of true to no relationships among the relationships probed in each scientific field.” This statement is very accurate when you look at some of the research findings that have been concluded incorrect after publication. Goldstein discusses theory laden as a problem when identifying something as a fact or not because all facts are based off of prior theories which can cause them to be incorrect and biased. This ties into the point that Loannidis was making because biased information can cause an entire research study to be inaccurate from the begging. These research findings that are published are taught in school systems which is not good because most students who learn information in class do not question what is being taught to them which is very important when it comes to science because it is constantly changing when new information is …show more content…
Many publishers will only publish information is the results of the experiment are different than the normal information gathered because it is more appealing to readers. However, this causes problems with applying this information to society. For instance, when a doctor uses the information found in a case study for their patients problems can arise if the only information that is published is dramatic results when the majority of the studies conducted did not find any results that were highly significant. This is a problem because if the medications that the doctors are using on their patients do not have an actual dramatic effect on the patients wavering health than their lives could be put at risk. Another problem that can arise because of publication bias is experiments that only search for dramatic results. This can cause researchers to include something in their experiment that would alter the results causing them to appear more significant than the results actually are. With dramatic results being the goal of researchers work the important experiments may not be conducted as often due to the results fitting into the average expected outcome. This is touched on by Goldstein when he discusses what is relevant when considering something a fact. What is meant by this is if the only thing that is relevant to researchers experiments is producing