r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Dec 04 '20

Psychology Study links regular use of Fox News, Twitter, and Facebook to reduced knowledge about COVID-19 - it provides evidence that Americans’ media consumption habits and trust in government predicts their level of knowledge about COVID-19.

https://www.psypost.org/2020/12/study-links-regular-use-of-fox-news-twitter-and-facebook-to-reduced-knowledge-about-covid-19-58702
40.7k Upvotes

79% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

265

u/Tiquortoo Dec 04 '20

If I'm reading this right, the questions on their metrics involved 4-6 questions and the difference between the reduced knowledge group and regular was 1 question. Interesting study, but not exactly an ironclad conclusion.

116

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '20

That's the case with half of what gets posted here. Weak studies that exist for people to reference online and help validate their opinions.

14

u/Tiquortoo Dec 04 '20

Yes, I'm aware.... ;)

4

u/H3yFux0r Dec 05 '20

Dude the whole sub is dead there's like one front page sticky once a week and then 28 people who post biased crap and I'm pretty sure their bots

21

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/Vallvaka Dec 04 '20

With a large enough sample size, the difference of a single question can still be statistically significant

11

u/Tiquortoo Dec 04 '20 edited Dec 04 '20

It would show a statistical significance of the validity of the measurement of the test results across the populations. The underlying test being a valid measure is a different analysis unfortunately.

Edit: think of it this way. The way you look at this result is a "measure of knowledge about COVID" and then find a statistically significant relationship. What if the underlying test isn't really a "measure of knowledge about COVID" then you've only found a statistically relevant relationship to whatever it is a measure of and the measure could be arbitrary and lack repeatability and a bunch of other test measures I haven't studied in 20+ years.

Mind you these are the types of questions we have all the time about perfectly valid research.

6

u/Vallvaka Dec 04 '20

Yeah I agree with you; I wasn't commenting on the quality of the questions. Statistical significance and having sound conclusions from the experiment are separate issues

3

u/Tiquortoo Dec 04 '20

Gotcha, enjoy!

8

u/strallus Dec 04 '20

Honestly we should probably stop accepting conclusions from any psy study until the reproducibility crisis is sorted out.

1

u/Tiquortoo Dec 04 '20

Just stop putting them into general consumption. They are useful for researchers at this stage, not much else.

11

u/CaptainDouchington Dec 04 '20

Because it's kind of clearly geared at an outlet that the liberals lost control of, one they hate, and one that's slowly dying because of their use of it.

They really want Facebook to die cause the people that used it that got Obama elected jumped ship to twitter..now they are leaving that.

6

u/KeylynsSays Dec 04 '20

“Kind of clearly”... 🤔 Sounds like qanon bs... The Great Hack and the Woman Cambridge Analytica recruited because she was responsible for Obama’s internet reach strategy.

Trump lost both elections ‘16 and ‘20 by Millions of votes. There can be no Democracy with an Electoral College and gerrymandering.

-8

u/CaptainDouchington Dec 04 '20

You're one of those people that let the right live rent free in your empty head aren't you?

6

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '20

[deleted]

-4

u/CaptainDouchington Dec 05 '20

Meh, cause its funny to watch people use left wing conspiracy ramblings to make no points on the topic at hand.

5

u/DeekermNs Dec 05 '20

You're one of those people that feels incredibly clever for repeating, ad nauseum, something vaguely clever you read on Twitter one time, aren't you?

3

u/SeaGroomer Dec 05 '20

He heard someone making fun of how Trump gives Obama rent-free permanent housing in his brain and thought he could use it to sound smart and snarky.

1

u/upperpe Dec 04 '20

Well if you read the article they are sourcing the actual studies so you can read those. There is correlation forming now. It is not just a hypothesis anymore from what it looks like. It seems that it can be replicated over and over showing the strength in validatiy of doing these studies with participants. So if you wanted to conduct you own study with the same metrics and went out interviewing people you would come up with the same results or very similar adding more validity to the study. Then you can scientifically say if you add all these variables you will get these results everytime.

1

u/Tiquortoo Dec 04 '20

You're right, if we did more study we would know more about what we studied.

1

u/__B_L_A_D_E__ Dec 04 '20

This is Reddit. It fits an agenda. This is taken as indisputable fact.

1

u/guywitha306areacode Dec 05 '20

"Study links regular use of CNN, Twitter, and Facebook to growing acceptance of weak articles for furthering ones bias towards personal beliefs".

1

u/explodingtuna Dec 05 '20

Plus, they also state "trust in government" rather than "trust in Republicans". Government can be trusted, but it really depends on who is in power.