Thursday, 16 July 2009

How headlines change the story

Thanks to Ben Goldacre's Bad Science column for this one:

http://www.badscience.net/2009/07/asking-for-it/#more-1250

I quote the intro verbatim:

There’s nothing like science for giving that objective, white-coat flavoured legitimacy to your prejudices, so it must have been a great day for Telegraph readers when they came across the headline “Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists”. Ah, scientists. “Women who drink alcohol, wear short skirts and are outgoing are more likely to be raped, claim scientists at the University of Leicester.” Well there you go. Oddly, though, the title of the press release for the same research was “Promiscuous men more likely to rape”.

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