Week 12- Health Psychology and the Media (reading cards contained: Sumner et al. (2014))

Question 1

Why is it important to be skeptical about how the media portrays health psychology science?

Answer 1

Media news is an increasing source of health-related information, which can inform our health decisions. However, news reports of science are often simplified, exaggerated, or just plain wrong, which can lead to poor decisions. It is important to be skeptical about what we read.

Question 2

Sumner et al. (2014) : aims

Answer 2

The Summer et al. (2014) article attempted to answer where media bias comes from? Are reporters solely to blame or could the researchers and their universities play a role (who provide a press release)?

Question 3

Sumner et al. (2014) : method

Answer 3

Retrospective quantitative content analysis comparing original article, university press release, and news article. Original article was treated as ground truth, and press release (PR) and news article were coded for whether they contained:

1. Advice – Exaggerated advice to change behaviour
2. Causal claims – Causal claims from correlational data
3. Human Inference – Inferences about humans from animal research

Question 4

Sumner et al (2014) : results

Answer 4

Press release…
-40% of the press releases exaggerated advice
-33% of press releases made exaggerated causal claims
-36% of press releasees made exaggerated human inference

What about the news? ….
-36% of news was exaggerated for advice
-39% of the news was exaggerated for causal claims
-47% of the news was exaggerated for human inference

-> take away is that similar percentages mean it is more likely that the universities own press release is responsible for the exaggeration in the news article.

Question 5

Sumner et al. (2014) graphs…

Answer 5

• Proportion of news stories with exaggerated advice were higher when the press releases contained exaggeration
• Proportion of news stories with exaggerated causal claims and inappropriate human inference were higher when the press releases contained exaggeration.
• Proportion of press releases that led to news uptake did not vary by whether the press release was exaggerated or not. Thus, exaggerated press releases did not have better reach!

Question 6

What did the Sumner et al. (2014) article conclude?

Answer 6

1. University press releases were the primary source of exaggeration.
2. Exaggerated university press releases did not garner more news coverage than non-exaggerated university press releases.
3. To reduce bias in news stories about health-related science, it is important to target the content of university press releases.

Question 7

Why is it important to be skeptical about how AI portrays health psychology science?

Answer 7

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools will be an increasing source of health-related information going forward. However, the extent to which AI tools yield accurate and complete information is still unknown. It is important to be skeptical about the output(s) from AI tools.