Why Do Stupid Research?

By Peter Lloyd

You see it in all fields of scientific pursuit—biology, economics, physics, psychology—studies funded, conducted, and concluded with bold declarations of the blindingly obvious: "Brain scans show uncertainty fuels anxiety." Really?

Every day I browse headlines of creativity, invention, innovation. I have to say, I'm amazed at just how much progress creative people all over the world make in all areas of human endeavor. And then, every once in a while, I read something like, "Shyness negatively affects marital quality." What?

Inside the article beyond the headline, however, there's more. "Shyer people reported more problems with issues like trust, jealousy, money, and household management." There's always more to a story than what its headline can convey. In this case, the authors of the study begin to tell us something about how shyness affects relationships.

Pop Quiz

To demonstrate the value of proving rather than assuming what we think we already know, read the following headlines. Nine of them, I grabbed right off the wire. One I altered so that it states the opposite of what was actually discovered by research. Can you spot it?

—Turning off the air conditioning helps save fuel: Swiss study

—Brain study shows that the opinions of others matter

—Organic pesticides provide greener choice, study finds

—Homeless adults have significant unmet health care needs

—Political corruption has impact on social trust

—People who bike or walk to work are more fit, less fat than drivers

—Women, minorities face special hurdles in job market

—Older adults subjected to abuse or self-neglect at greater risk of mortality

—People with higher IQs make wiser economic choices, study finds

—Bees prefer shortest distance between two flowers

Before I identify the bogus headline, let me say that if you're a true skeptic, a seasoned critical thinker made of hardcore creative mettle, you questioned all of the headlines. Some of the greatest inventions and innovations come to us from the discoveries of creative people who challenged the most obvious assumptions, like the shape of the Earth.

The Earth looks sort of flat, but we know it's not. We have photos from space. But it still takes critical thinking and trust in science over perception to think of it as round when you're standing on a mountain ridge, looking over miles of level terrain stretching out to a relatively straight horizon. Or to look at the moon, apparently suspended in the sky, and understand that it, like the Earth, hurtles through space at breakneck speed.

Answer

I altered the third headline from its actual opposite finding, Organic pesticides not always 'greener' choice, study finds.

Just as you or I might have felt comfortable assuming that bees would prefer to make a beeline from flower to flower, we might have been swayed just as easily toward preferring organic pesticides. The story explains why we might not want to jump to that conclusion.

Creative thinking demands that we dig deeper, question the obvious, and demand never to leave well enough alone. Invention and innovation result from creative people who insist, "If it ain't broke, let's find out how to break it and then fix it so that it won't break next time."

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.

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