The study measured reading for pleasure and a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and biological variables at multiple points throughout childhood. Photo: Samuel Borges Photography/Shutterstock An article for the general public led with this headline: "Reading for pleasure helps kids' brain development". The story in this post comes from coverage in The Conversation and Scientific …
Continue reading “Reading for pleasure helps kids’ brain development”
A friendly reminder that when all the variables are measured, causal claims aren't supportable. Photo credit: Sleeping: MicrostockAsia/Deposit Photos CNN's headline was "sleep this way to add 5 years to your life." This headline should immediately kick in your "correlation is not causation" spidey-sense. a) What makes this headline causal? b) What are the two …
Continue reading Really? “Sleep this way to add 5 years to your life”
Can the study rule out stress as a third variable? Photo credit; GaudiLab/Depost Photos I have a new favorite website for journalistic coverage of psychology research: Psypost.org. You can read a few articles per month for free. Unlike my other "favorite" site (StudyFinds), Psypost strives to report the research without adding unwarranted causal claims …
Continue reading Smartphone checking predicts daily cognitive failures
An example of politically polarized health outcomes occurred during the pandemic. Democratic-led areas were more likely to pass masking and lockdown mandates, and these areas later had lower COVID death rates compared to Republican-led areas.Photo credit: MikeEdwards/Depositphotos The American political system is polarized--increasingly so in the last few decades. Such polarization has gridlocked national politics …
Continue reading Life expectancy gap in different U.S. counties
The weekly recommendation for exercise is 150 minutes. Photo credit: blasbike/Deposit Photos A journalist wrote about a recent meta-analysis in JAMA Psychiatry which evaluated the connection between weekly time spent exercising and levels of depression. The headline of the Washington Post summary read, "Exercising even half the recommended amount can help prevent depression". Let's delve …
Continue reading How much weekly exercise can prevent depression?
The study found a moderated relationship. What are the three variables involved? Photo: cozyta/Deposit Photos This story comes from the website studyfinds.org--a website that covers a wide range of scientific studies (and therefore a great place to practice critical reading of how journalists cover science news). The StudyFinds journalist describes a newly-published Dutch study on …
The study empirically tested the widely-held hypothesis that psychopathy would be associated with more career success. Photo: Mangostar/Shutterstock It's a common belief that to get ahead in business or politics, people have to be driven, callous, and unsympathetic. Is it true? A journalist for Forbes magazine reviewed a study by personality psychologist Hedwig Eisenbarth. The …
After matching students based on their pre-college voting behaviors, the researchers found that students who had taken a political science class became more likely to register to vote. Photo credit: Lakshmiprasad/Depositphotos In the online news outlet called The Conversation, researchers write summaries of their own research studies for a general audience. Here's an example from …
Continue reading Taking Poli Sci predicts likelihood of voting
Which alternative explanations for the relationship between diet and mental health does this study allow us to rule out? Photo credit: ArturVerkhovetskiy/Deposit Photos Here's a simple headline to work with: "Kids who eat more fruits, vegetables have better mental health". The story appears on a mega-site called studyfinds.org, which provides multiple summaries of science research. …
Continue reading Kids who eat more fruits, vegetables have better mental health
Photo credit: Dangubic/Deposit Photos Here's a link to CNN's coverage of a study on alcohol use and gray matter in the brain. The headline reads, "Drinking any amount of alcohol causes damage to the brain, study finds." Let's consider how well the study supports the causal claim the journalist (or the editor) attached to it. …
Continue reading Claim: “Drinking any amount of alcohol causes damage to the brain”