I'm not assuming either claim is bogus or legit. I'm saying trying to divine the legitimacy of a study without much context beyond a handful of "Alice says X b

I'm not assuming either claim is bogus or legit. I'm saying trying to divine the legitimacy of a study without much context beyond a handful of "Alice says X but Bob says Y" is a fool's errand. On any "X/not X" topic one side is probably going to be correct, but not necessarily for any good reason.