Question

It is so important in our everyday lives to be able to evaluate if a claim is truly scientifically reliable or not. Often, advertisements will claim to have “proven results”. Can you evaluate if this is a reliable claim or not?

Give an example of 3 questions you can ask yourself to determine if a claim is scientifically reliable or not:

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Answer 1

What is their source?
- they could be a part of a marketing scam
- the key question is: how do they know?
- Who produced it and what background do they have?
- what other studies could the group have produced?

Is the main point of the claim proven by evidence?
- In order to figure out if something is reliable or not, you have to ask whether it makes sense and whether the conclusions were proven
- do the conclusions follow logically from what has been cited, or are they being drawn from evidence that doesn't support them at all?

Do the sources have a bias?
- That doesn’t necessarily mean what they have to say isn’t reliable
- But think about whether they are a witness to facts or are just describing their opinion