Name:______
Activity 2.1.2 Science and the MediaIntroduction
You cannot open a magazine or turn on the television without being bombarded with statistical claims about products being scientifically proven to do one thing or another. The toothpaste claiming to whiten teeth better than other leading brands, the anti-aging cream proven to be better at firming and lifting than its top competitors, or the vitamin supplements scientifically tested to be safe and effective at improving health. All of these advertisements use results of so-called scientific studies to sell their products. Advertisers are not the only ones who make scientific claims. News broadcasters are constantly running stories claiming that so-and-so reduces your chances of getting a certain disease or some other promising finding.
With all of these claims, how do you know what to believe? In this activity you will investigate the various ways in which data can be manipulated, explore what to look for when evaluating data presented by others, and finally critique science data presented in popular media and compare with science data presented in scientific journals.
Equipment
· Computer with Internet access and presentation software
· Activity 2.1.2 Student Response Sheet
· Laboratory Journal
Procedure
1. Take a look at the examples below. Each example uses statistics to manipulate data.
2. Brainstorm the ways in which each example uses statistics to manipulate data or mislead the reader.
Example 1:
Prosthetic, Inc. is one of the top suppliers of a new prosthetic arm currently on the market. Orthotics and Prosthetics is their leading competitor. In their last annual report, Prosthetic, Inc. claimed that their profits have increased significantly more than Orthotics and Prosthetics’ profits. In the report, they posted the following graphs showing their profits and Orthotics and Prosthetics’ profits between the years 1998 to 2009.
Example 2:
ABC.com, a website claiming to present important health care data, reported that the average blood sugar level before meals for Americans is 142 mg/dL, indicating that most Americans are either living with undiagnosed diabetes or are pre-diabetic.
Example 3:
A local news station reported a study that found that motorcycles are the safest vehicles to drive while passenger cars are the most dangerous vehicles to drive. They used the following graph to support their claim.
3. Share your brainstormed ideas with a classmate.
4. Obtain a Student Response Sheet from your teacher.
5. Compare your brainstormed ideas with the answers on Part I of the Student Response Sheet.
6. Read Part II: Ways in Which Statistics Can Be Misused on the Student Response Sheet. As you read highlight important information and take notes.
7. Match up each example below with its corresponding description on Part II of the Student Response Sheet. Write the letter of the appropriate example in each box.
Example A: A report states that the average house price in Neighborhood Y is $312,910. Further investigation reveals that this figure is actually the mean of the houses in Neighborhood Y and that ten of the eleven houses in the neighborhood are worth much less than the mean. Below is the list of all of the house prices for Neighborhood Y:
94,000; 105,000; 110,000; 150,000; 175,000;
181,000; 189,000; 200,000; 205,000; 233,000; 1,800,000
Example B: The manufacturer of a wrinkle cream claims that an independent study finds that their cream effectively reduces wrinkles. The manufacturer prints this claim on their product label. Further investigation reveals that two independent studies were completed. One study found a decrease in wrinkles in some people, but the other study revealed no difference in wrinkle reduction between the treatment and control groups.
Example C: A study was conducted to determine how often people brush and floss their teeth. The researcher asked participants the following question; “Knowing that brushing and flossing prevents tooth decay, how often do you brush and floss your teeth?”
Example D: A report states that a new miracle drug cuts the risk of developing breast cancer in half. Further investigation reveals that the trial involved only 100 individuals. Out of these 100 participants, it is predicted that two individuals would statistically have developed breast cancer. While on the miracle drug, only one person actually developed breast cancer. Therefore, the relative risk reduction was 50 percent. These same results could have been presented by saying that the drug reduced the risk of developing breast cancer by one percent, or the risk of developing breast cancer while on the medication is one in 100. This figure represents the absolute risk.
Example E: A report states that ice cream leads to an increased number of children drowning at the beach. The report is based on a cross-sectional study that found a correlation between people buying ice cream and the number of children downing at the beach.
Example F: Tobacco industry consultants reported that a study found little or no relationship between environmental tobacco smoke and disease. The report is based on a prospective American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study that began in 1959. The study attempted to measure the prevalence of disease in people whose spouses were smokers versus people whose spouses were nonsmokers. The report neglected to note that the study began when secondhand smoke was pervasive and virtually everyone was exposed to secondhand smoke in their daily lives. Therefore, there was no true comparison of “unexposed” persons to “exposed” persons, regardless of whether the spouse was a smoker or nonsmoker.
Example G: A study was conducted to determine whether a coin started heads up lands heads up more often than tails up. The study found that the coin landed heads up 80% of the time. Further investigation shows that the study only tossed the coin twenty times. Another study conducted the same investigation but tossed the coin 500 times and found that the coin landed heads up approximately 50% of the time.
Example H: A study was conducted to determine the median salary of alumni twenty years after graduation. Only those whose contact information is known and who are willing to honestly answer are included in the study.
Example I: A study was conducted to determine the safety and efficacy of an experimental treatment. A competitor reviewed the study and published a statement that the treatment showed success in treating the disease but also caused a dangerous increase in blood pressure. Further investigation of the actual study found that only a very small percentage of the large experimental group receiving the treatment showed an elevation in blood pressure.
Example J: A study was conducted to determine whether Americans prefer beef or pork for their protein at dinner. The study reported that 80% of Americans prefer eating beef to pork. Further investigation shows that the study included people who lived in areas of the United States where cattle ranching is a predominant industry.
Example K: Company Y must report their profits to a board of investors. Below are two versions of the same profits graph. They chose to include the second graph in the report, as the image shows a greater slope for their profits.
Example L: The graph on the left shows profits between the years 2001 and 2002. The graph on the right shows profits between the years 2000 and 2001. Neither graph indicates to the reader which years the graphs represent.
Example M: The original graph shows the profits from 0 dollars all the way to 4 million dollars, whereas this graph only shows profits from 1 million dollars to 2.8 million dollars. Therefore, this graph gives the appearance that the profits have increased more dramatically than the original graph.
8. Answer Conclusion question 1.
9. Work in groups of three or four to brainstorm a fictitious product or medical intervention.
10. Design a short PowerPoint presentation, no more than three slides in length, to “sell” your product or medical intervention to your classmates. Use at least three of the statistical fallacies that you investigated in Step 6.
11. As the class watches the presentations, decide what is misleading or wrong about the presentation.
12. After the class decides on what is misleading, explain the process that your group followed to manipulate the information to make the product or medical intervention more appealing to the consumer.
13. Have your teacher initial and date that you have successfully completed the presentation on your Mission Completion Task list.
14. Find two articles in newspapers, magazines, or on the Internet that contain an experimental study or an observational study. You may begin your search at the following websites:
o USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/
o Chicago Tribune - http://www.chicagotribune.com/
o LA Times - http://www.latimes.com/
o Scientific American - http://www.sciam.com/
o CNN - http://www.cnn.com/index.html
15. Print or cut out the articles.
16. Find two science journal articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Click on the Full Text link below the article description to access the entire article. Print the articles.
o NEJM - Free Full Original Articles http://search.nejm.org/search?w=free+full+original+articles
17. For the science journal articles and the articles found in popular media, answer the following questions. Note that for some of the studies that you find, you will not be able to locate answers to all of the questions. Answer the questions to the best of your ability.
o What type of study was performed?
o How many subjects were involved in the study?
o How were biases reduced or eliminated in the study design?
o What results are presented?
o How credible are the results? Hint: Critique the statistics presented in the article.
18. Answer the remaining Conclusion questions.
Conclusion
1. In what ways do marketers misuse statistics in order to convince consumers to buy their products?
2. How do the studies presented in the popular media compare to the studies presented in the science journal?
3. Describe at least three reasons popular media, including newspapers, present data differently than scientific journals.
4. With so many scientific claims being presented to you on a daily basis, how can you determine what is credible? What further questions should you, as the consumer, ask?