3 ms·

In cancer science, many "discoveries" don't hold up

14 points by gruseom 15y ago

Alex3917 15y ago
Heh, I always get downmodded whenever I comment about stuff like this. The crazy thing is that at an 88% failure-to-reproduce rate, this is literally lower than the percentage of studies demonstrating efficacy in psychic phenomena, prayer, acupuncture, etc. I know it's an apples and oranges comparison, but still.
- gruseom 15y ago
  There is an increasing number of similar reports coming out; this is probably the worst I've seen so far. This system is corrupt. People don't want to hear that for the same reason that no human wants to hear what goes against their religion. One of the most shocking facts here is that the researchers had to sign confidentiality agreements promising not to say when they failed to reproduce a finding. There's also this interesting detail: The most common response by the challenged scientists was: "you didn't do it right." That could be true. But it also is precisely the psychology of the witch doctor.
  - Alex3917 15y ago
    "People don't want to hear that for the same reason that no human wants to hear what goes against their religion." I think a lot of the time people's worldview literally prevents them from seeing what's in front of them. E.g. there seem to be three types of treatments in medicine: A) Treatments that will never work regardless of how much you believe they work, like intercessory prayer. B) Treatments that will always work regardless of how much you believe they don't work, like antibiotics. C) Treatments that legitimately work but only if you believe they work, which seemingly include many psychiatric drugs, meditation, probably lots of treatments relating to chronic illness, etc.. Despite the fact that (in my humble opinion) this seems to be the most reasonable interpretation based on the evidence, 99% of people literally can't even see it as a possibility because it goes against their worldview in one way or the other.

3 ms·

In cancer science, many "discoveries" don't hold up

14 points by gruseom 15y ago

Alex3917 15y ago
Heh, I always get downmodded whenever I comment about stuff like this. The crazy thing is that at an 88% failure-to-reproduce rate, this is literally lower than the percentage of studies demonstrating efficacy in psychic phenomena, prayer, acupuncture, etc. I know it's an apples and oranges comparison, but still.
- gruseom 15y ago
  There is an increasing number of similar reports coming out; this is probably the worst I've seen so far. This system is corrupt. People don't want to hear that for the same reason that no human wants to hear what goes against their religion. One of the most shocking facts here is that the researchers had to sign confidentiality agreements promising not to say when they failed to reproduce a finding. There's also this interesting detail: The most common response by the challenged scientists was: "you didn't do it right." That could be true. But it also is precisely the psychology of the witch doctor.
  - Alex3917 15y ago
    "People don't want to hear that for the same reason that no human wants to hear what goes against their religion." I think a lot of the time people's worldview literally prevents them from seeing what's in front of them. E.g. there seem to be three types of treatments in medicine: A) Treatments that will never work regardless of how much you believe they work, like intercessory prayer. B) Treatments that will always work regardless of how much you believe they don't work, like antibiotics. C) Treatments that legitimately work but only if you believe they work, which seemingly include many psychiatric drugs, meditation, probably lots of treatments relating to chronic illness, etc.. Despite the fact that (in my humble opinion) this seems to be the most reasonable interpretation based on the evidence, 99% of people literally can't even see it as a possibility because it goes against their worldview in one way or the other.