Chapter 2: Research Methods

Before I read this chapter I wasn't sure how important Research Design was to our every day lives, but I realized that without it, even the most intelligent people can be fooled.  We all know those people who "knew it all along" - hindsight bias or have the tendency to be overconfident. Hindsight bias and overconfidence can lead us to draw misleading conclusions! It is a good thing the scientific method exists and points us in the right direction. Some examples of research designs are naturalistic observations, case studies, correlational designs, and experimental designs. If I was going to choose one of them to do I would choose an experimental design because it is the only one that allows us to infer causation. I think surveys are a waste of time because alot of people don't take surveys seriously, and the questions are asked in a way that is usually confusing. For example, the match makers we do in school..umm nobody fills them out seriously! It's a good thing the information doesn't have significant value. One thing that I don't completely understand is how to determine the difference between correlation with causation. In the book some unreliable examples were,, "Eating fish prevents crime", "Winning World Cup lowers heart attack deaths", "Housework Cuts Breast Cancer Risk" ...how do we know when the media is telling the truth or not??