Alarming rise in nose picking!

I think I’ve pointed out in the past the media’s relative inability to report accurately on scientific studies. I’ve seen sensational headlines about some recent study where if you actually read the study, the conclusion is the exact opposite of the headline. I think the general understanding of scientific method is fairly pathetic these days overall, but the media makes it obvious.

The political news web site Slate actually has a series called Bogus Trend Stories where they point out the media tendency to take a few alarming anecdotal stories ("kids picking noses with both fingers"), cite an expert with no actual data ("children from broken families are more likely to be ambidextrous nose pickers"), and declare a trend where no actual evidence exists ("nose picking out of control!").

So today I saw a story with the headline, "Illegal drug use higher than in nearly a decade". Now given that Baby Boomers have a more tolerant view of drug use than their parents and their parents are slowly dying off and teenagers are teenagers, this seemed like a statistically likely statement.

The article pointed out a "sharp increase in marijuana use". The study was a self-reported one, meaning that people were voluntarily reporting their drug use (immediate red flag). And the study pointed out that medical marijuana sales in the 14 states that allow medical marijuana had taken off. Well duh.

And then, at the very end of the article, the second to last sentence:

The survey does not distinguish between medicinal and non-medicinal marijuana use.

Given the alarming headline, this is kind of a key point. After this long article about this terrible rise in illegal drug use, at the very end, comes the realization that the entire rise could be attributed to (legal) medical marijuana. Of course the article doesn’t actually examine this, so an unobservant reader would just be terrified about the frightening rise in nose picking (sorry, illegal drug use).

And an observant reader would be frustrated by the lack of data to make any real conclusion.

So anytime you read about a scientific study, do two things:

1. Question what the data actually proves
2. Looks for links to the actual study, so you can figure out what it really said.

Because the media (and unfortunately too many regular people) simply do not understand the scientific method.