In what ways does the press release misrepresent the findings of the original journal article? What are some of the scientific or methodological weaknesses of the research that is being discussed?
- a) Are there any factual errors in the press release? In other words, does the press release make factual mistakes concerning things like the number of participants in the study or the results of the study?
- b) Does the press release make causal claims from data that, in the original journal article, are only correlational?
- c) Does the press release make an exaggerated claim about the research; a claim that is too strong or that goes “beyond the data”? For instance, does the press release exaggerate the results by making it sound as though there were bigger differences between the groups of people tested in the study than there actually were? Alternatively, are claims made in the press release about a population that was not studied in the original journal article?
Sample Solution