John Oliver - Misunderstanding Scientific Studies | Insight Spigot | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: John Oliver - Misunderstanding Scientific Studies
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time.com once even ran the headline
scientists say smelling farts might
prevent cancer studies about coffee that
claim it may reverse the effects of
liver damage uh help prevent colon
cancer decrease the risk of uh
endometrial cancer and increase the risk
of miscarriage coffee today is like God
in the Old Testament it will either save
you or kill you depending on how much
you believe in its magic powers nobody
is publishing a study that says nothing
up with asai berries
and to get those results there are all
sorts of ways that consciously or not
you can tweak your study you could alter
how long it lasts uh or make your random
sample too small to be reliable pcking
is very complicated but it basically
means collecting lots of variables and
then playing with your data until you
find something that counts as
statistically significant but is
probably meaningless even the best
designed studies can get flukish results
and the best process that science has to
guard against that is the replication
study where other scientists redo your
study scientists themselves know not to
attach too much significance to
individual studies until they're placed
in the much larger context of all the
work taking place in that field but too
often a small study with nuanced
tentative findings gets blown out of all
proportion when it's presented to us the
lay public chocolate bar could improve
blood flow to the placenta and benefit
the growth and development of your baby
especially in women at risk for pream IA
or high blood pressure in pregnancy
except that's not what the study said
it's like a game of telephone some of
this is on us the viewing audience we
like fun poppy science that we can share
like gossip and TV news producers know
it that is why you constantly hear stuff
like this men listen up a brand new
study says a woman is more open to
romance when they are full opposed to
being hungry
okay first of all no
[ __ ] anyone is more open to anything
when they aren't hungry but but you
should know that study involved only 20
women and you cannot presume that 20
women can speak for all women this is
science not the United State Senate and
and then and then there was this
eye-catching report from just last year
a university in England says drinking
champagne every week may help delay
dementia and Alzheimer's disease there's
big issue with that study aside from the
fact that if you are celebrating with
champagne three times a week your
standards for celebration need to be
much higher champagne is acceptable on
New Year's Valentine's birthdays and if
and when Henry Kissinger dies and that's
it that is it that is the full list but
the bigger issue is that study was
performed on Rats the real science on
oxytocin is more complicated than the
term moral molecule suggests because
what while it has been found to enhance
positive emotions like bonding and Trust
researchers have have also found that it
can enhance negative emotions like envy
and bias so while promising the science
on this is still very much in progress
this is a chart mapping the results of
studies of things like coffee eggs and
wine all of them have been linked to
raising or lowering your risk of cancer
depending on the study and everything
causes cancer is not the conclusion you
want to draw from science it's the
conclusion you should draw from logging
on to WebMD where that is their motto
having whole milk or having whole fat
dairy products actually can help you
lose weight I think the the way to live
your life is you find the study that
sounds best to you and you go no no no
no no no no no in science in science you
don't just get to cherry-pick the parts
that justify what you were going to do
anyway that's religion you're thinking
of Rel
that is what you're thinking of there
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