I agree, the onus is definitely on the publisher to make sure the claims they make are statistically sound. However you're going to lose most of your casual aud

I agree, the onus is definitely on the publisher to make sure the claims they make are statistically sound. However you're going to lose most of your casual audience if you focus on the statistics. You need to go to the source for that. See reply to pak wrt to sample size. "Support" does not mean "prove". How can you say it doesn't support the idea of emotional contagion when the studies indicate an effect for at least two emotions. Is there more work to be done? Definitely. But these are first steps.