Real science is all about critically appraising the evidence for somebody else’s position.
BEN GOLDACREI write about misuses of evidence in plenty of different spheres: scaremongering journalists, obvious quacks and naturopaths, and flaws in the way that evidence is used in mainstream academia, medicine and in (government) policy.
More Ben Goldacre Quotes
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Transparency and detail are everything in science.
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One of the things I always found interesting is the same tricks are used to distort medicine in all of those domains.
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Doctors and patients need as much data as possible to make an informed decision about what treatment is best.
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But as we will see, even these things are hard to do on your own, and in reality require wholesale social and political changes.
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I hope that you will be asked to participate in a trial at some stage in your disease
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You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.
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The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating things in the whole of medicine. It’s not just about taking a pill, and your performance and your pain getting better. It’s about our beliefs and expectations. It’s about the cultural meaning of a treatment.
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Yes. I’m a doctor, an epidemiologist, and lots of my professional colleagues flip back and forth between industry and medical roles. I know them; they are not bad people. But it is possible for good people in bad systems to do things that inflict enormous harm.
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I think you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that.
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Science has authority not because of white coats or titles, but because of precision and transparency: you explain your theory, set out your evidence, and reference the studies that support your case.
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I spend a lot of time talking to people who disagree with me – I would go so far as to say that it’s my favourite leisure activity.
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Just just because there are flaws in aircraft design that doesn’t mean flying carpets exist.
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I agree, the world would be a better place if doctors were less enthusiastic about adopting very new drugs.
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I think you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that.
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And if, by the end [of this book], you reckon you might still disagree with me, then I offer you this: you’ll still be wrong, but you’ll be wrong with a lot more panache and flair than you could possibly manage right now.
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