Humane Educator's Toolbox: Battling Bad Science

Coffee both causes and prevents cancer? Shopping makes men impotent? We've all seen the headlines that oversimplify health and nutrition issues, and sometimes even mislead.  This is a perfect arena to help students flex their critical thinking skills and unpack the good and bad science behind all these claims.

In his TED talk, "Battling Bad Science," doctor and epidemiologist Ben Goldacre explores some of the ways that evidence can be distorted and studies can be manipulated. He briefly dissects claims such as that red wine helps prevent breast cancer and that olive oil reduces wrinkles. He also looks at the ways that experiments themselves can be manipulated (such as companies comparing their drug A against a too high or too low dose of drug B to show that drug A is more effective), as well as the impact on a study when negative data goes missing.

Watch the video here:



As Dr. Goldacre says, "real science is about critically appraising the evidence for somebody else's position." Critical thinking is an indispensable skill for us and our students to hone, and Goldacre's video provides a great steppingstone for closely examining health and science claims.

For a related activity, check our our Be a C.R.I.T.I.C. lesson plan, which uses the CRITIC technique to examine materials from a variety of sources.

~ Marsha

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