4 ms·

The study presents imperfect data. You have presented no data. Which is more credible? Why do comments like this get upvoted so much?

• sanderjd 10y ago
  Perhaps oddly, it turns out that presenting no data is better than presenting data with poor foundation. Comments like this get upvoted because many of us appreciate someone pointing out when there's no "there" there before we've spent our own time reading.
• algesten 10y ago
  uhm. lol? are you saying a study can't be criticised by anything less than a counter study?
• hueving 10y ago
  Have you heard the phrase "garbage in, garbage out?"
  • Udik 10y ago
    Referred to the study or to the commenters?
• parfe 10y ago
  >Why do comments like this get upvoted so much? They're dressed up versions of "correlation != causation". Low thought comments appealing to people with not-even stats 101 knowledge. There is no such thing as a perfect study, and a generic version of the OPs comment could be copy and pasted on any study ever. Unless you study the entire population of the planet, you're going to miss subgroups. Unless you study the entire population of the planet, you're going to need some sort of selection criteria. Unless you have infinite funding and time, you're going to need to make trade offs and sacrifices in your experiment design. A study will disclose these shortcomings for readers to balance the significance of results against. Take this complaint from OP: >* The sample size was tiny. (20 students) What sample size would satisfy him? Why is 20 too small? 40? 80? 1037? Is he basing his opinion of a proper sample size on his gut? 20 just doesn't feel right?