Studies Show: A Popular Guide to Understanding Scientific Studies

If you are not sure what to make of all the claims and counterclaims, this new book will help cut through the conflicting reports and contradictory findings. We are bombarded daily with media reports of startling new findings from "just released" studies often in major, authoritative publications on consumer products, medications, foods, alcohol, safety devices, social behaviour, public policy, and much more. The decisions of millions of consumers, professionals, and government agencies can be influenced by just one study. Light, humorous, and entertaining, "Studies Show" reviews sample studies to expose their traps and pitfalls. In plain English, statistics analyst John H. Fennick discusses the methods of good and bad studies to explain how scientific results can differ sometimes radically. Fennick shows that when armed with common sense and critical intelligence, we can understand almost any study.