how do you research something on the
internet do you start with an open mind
or do you set out to try and prove that
what you believe is the truth about a
subject what you type into Google will
give you a clue as well as what you do
with the results once they appear if you
are in fact cherry-picking evidence then
there is a pretty good chance that your
conclusions may be completely wrong
let me explain hi I'm dr. Alex from
ourpetshealth.com helping you and your pet
to live a healthier happier life and
welcome to another evidence matters
video now if you've spent any time
online you'll have seen plenty of people
cry do your research well research is
all well and good but only if you're
doing it properly and this plea is
normally made by someone with
alternative views and I've bet in most
cases their cereal cherry pickers so
let's start with the Wikipedia
definition of cherry picking it goes
cherry picking suppressing evidence or
the fallacy of incomplete evidence is
the act of pointing to individual cases
or data that seems to confirm a
particular position while ignoring a
significant proportion or related cases
or data that may contradict that
position so let me explain what this
means with an example using my old
friend homeopathy let's say you come
from a family that strongly believes in
homeopathy but you want to research if
it really works or not chances are you
will go into your research with the
starting opinion that homeopathy does
work even if this belief is a
subconscious one the worst thing you
could Google would be what is the
evidence homeopathy works and leave it
at that
so looking at the first page of Google
you'll find that four of the results are
proclaiming the wonder of homeopathic
treatment and homeopathy in general and
making bold claims about how effective
it is one results it's on the fence and
the other four results on the first page
claim that homeopathy is completely
ineffective now if you're a believer
looking at these results in all
likelihood you will just click on the
four results that support your view you
might follow any links they contain
you'll make copious notes proving what
you already believed and claim with
satisfaction knew your own
independent research confirms homeopathy
is the best thing since sliced bread
what you will have done is cherry-pick
the evidence that supports your view and
completely disregarded any evidence that
suggested otherwise now of course if all
you did was read the evidence that
proves homeopathy doesn't work
you'd be doing exactly the same thing
you'd be cherry-picking the evidence
that you wanted to believe now if you
read all the results and then googled
what is the evidence homeopathy doesn't
work you'd be doing a much better job
because you'd be trying to find evidence
both for and against to allow you to try
and form an overall opinion you'd then
read all about the systematic reviews of
all the evidence and see the many
institutions that have all drawn the
same conclusion now in all likelihood
you'd come to the same opinion so in
reality you can find evidence for
anything that you can imagine and this
evidence may be nothing more than
story's opinion or anecdote and I'll
discuss it in a future video why this
isn't really evidence at all but if it
supports your viewpoint and is the only
thing you look at then it will just do
nothing but confirm your beliefs so just
for example take the belief that the
earth is flat if your research simply
meant that you read evidence on the page
from the Flat Earth Society then what do
you think would happen you do nothing
more but reinforce your belief and that
is not research remember as well that
cherry-picking isn't always done
consciously so it isn't always as
obvious as these examples making a
conscious decision though to avoid
cherry-picking is very important
whenever you're doing any research but
when you're especially when you're
researching particular ideas or
treatments and remember that evidence
can be found and quoted to support
almost every opinion so another category
of cherry-picking that to be aware of
and I'd like to discuss is that mm
manufacturers or whichever drug or
supplement that you might be researching
so most products will often make bold
claims like proven to result in a 59
percent faster cure rate if you actually
look at where this data comes from
though the actual conclusions may be
very different
equally they're made just to pick data
from the one study that showed a
positive result and completely ignore
the majority that failed to demonstrate
any benefit the actual publishing of
research studies is another area where
there's the potential for cherry-picking
so running studies that are conduct
in a way so as to be able to draw firm
conclusions does take a lot of money and
as a result drug companies will often be
the ones funding studies into their
drugs it is quite possible then that
they will only publish the studies which
show the best results leaving those with
less enthusiastic outcomes unpublished
and unseen now that's not to say that
the positive studies that have been
carried out have been done incorrectly
or that all pharmaceutical studies
should be ignored absolutely not but the
overall body of evidence may be subject
to bias as a result of cherry-picking
which studies to publish so a really
good book that discusses this issue and
more about the pharmaceutical industry
in more detail is the very readable bad
farmer and while you're at it
it'd be a good idea to pick up bad
science as well by the same author which
goes through a lot of the ideas that I'm
discussing in my evidence matters series
that are really key to evidence-based
veterinary medicine but also human
medicine and will stand you in good
stead for researching topics in the
future so cherry-picking is just one way
to misinterpret evidence make sure you
know all about the placebo effect in
pets as well as reduction to the mean
which I've discussed in previous videos
and make sure you subscribe to make sure
to be sure that you don't miss out on
future videos all about helping you make
informed decisions so that you and your
pet can live healthier happier lives and
until next time i'm dr. alex from our
pets health because they're family