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posted by janrinok on Saturday May 30 2015, @06:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the let-me-give-you-money! dept.

Science journalist John Bohannon, whose former work included exposing the awful quality of science journal peer reviewing, has landed a new coup. With only minor effort, as described in http://io9.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800, he tricked a significant part of mainstream media into running stories how chocolate helps with weight loss.

"Slim by Chocolate!" the headlines blared. A team of German researchers had found that people on a low-carb diet lost weight 10 percent faster if they ate a chocolate bar every day. It made the front page of Bild, Europe's largest daily newspaper, just beneath their update about the Germanwings crash. From there, it ricocheted around the internet and beyond, making news in more than 20 countries and half a dozen languages. It was discussed on television news shows. It appeared in glossy print, most recently in the June issue of Shape magazine ("Why You Must Eat Chocolate Daily," page 128). Not only does chocolate accelerate weight loss, the study found, but it leads to healthier cholesterol levels and overall increased well-being. The Bild story quotes the study's lead author, Johannes Bohannon, Ph.D., research director of the Institute of Diet and Health: "The best part is you can buy chocolate everywhere."

I am Johannes Bohannon, Ph.D. Well, actually my name is John, and I'm a journalist. I do have a Ph.D., but it's in the molecular biology of bacteria, not humans. The Institute of Diet and Health? That's nothing more than a website.

Other than those fibs, the study was 100 percent authentic. My colleagues and I recruited actual human subjects in Germany. We ran an actual clinical trial, with subjects randomly assigned to different diet regimes. And the statistically significant benefits of chocolate that we reported are based on the actual data. It was, in fact, a fairly typical study for the field of diet research. Which is to say: It was terrible science. The results are meaningless, and the health claims that the media blasted out to millions of people around the world are utterly unfounded.

After a little actual, but mostly nonsensical research operation, he had a paper accepted by a supposedly reputable journal. With the aid of a media seeding agent, the story was placed and then took its course.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Saturday May 30 2015, @06:50AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday May 30 2015, @06:50AM (#190005) Journal

    From the article:

    With our 18 measurements, we had a 60% chance of getting some“significant” result with p < 0.05. (The measurements weren’t independent, so it could be even higher.) The game was stacked in our favor.

    When reading that (and the section surrounding it), I immediately thought of this xkcd. [xkcd.com]

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @09:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @09:40PM (#190224)

    If you consult an oracle too often, the gods become annoyed and punish you with false sign. If you must collect many omens, you must show piety by punishing yourself. The gods may then be satisfied with this substitute and allow a strong sign to overcome the false.

    If the problems suggested by that article are true, there are people presenting themselves as scientists (possibly with degrees) who use worse methods of divination then those inspecting entrails thousands of years ago.