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If anyone is interested, this is known as p-hacking in statistics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging), and

If anyone is interested, this is known as p-hacking in statistics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging), and works in a similar way. For instance, you have a statistical population of one hundred men and one hundred women: you collect as much data as possible about them - as many features as possible, actually - until you find something which happens to be statistically significant for your group (eg. salt consumption). Then, you publish your results, pretending that the feature you found was the original hypothesis for the study ("Our study confirms that salt consumption is higher in males.")

verbify 10y ago
It would be far more specific - you'd collect all their medical details, their ethnicity, age, etc., and then you end up with: 'Salt consumption can increase the risk of liver consumption for middle-aged males of African descent'
- rrobukef 10y ago
  ... liver consumption ...
  - AznHisoka 10y ago
    its filled with vitamin a.
  - verbify 10y ago
    I meant liver disease. But I'll leave it this way because it's funnier. And pretty tasty.
    - apetresc 10y ago
      "Consumption" is an old-fashioned word for classes of tuberculosis, which can affect the liver. So you could still be right :)
- Revex 10y ago
  I think I see these types of click-bait headlines all the time... and come to think of it, they have very small sample sizes.