April 23, 2007

Science that Matters

Science That Matters is a blog with a nice idea: to post about scientific studies that really matter.

I was especially struck by The power of hope, an entry that picks apart the claims of the "Pygmalion effect" of schoolshildren doing better when their teachers are told they would "bloom" intellectually. It turns out that that was not the result at all, but the good story got wings and spread, while the facts got left behind. A bit like how we can still hear about flatworm memory or the hundreth monkey. We really need blogs that both poke holes in this kind of factoids, as well as point out the significant research.

Posted by Anders3 at April 23, 2007 04:56 PM
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