SO – you all know about publication bias? The fact that nasty, authoritarian Journal Editors, sat with their cigars, expensive brandy and well-roasted coffee look upon trials that don’t give positive results and consign them to the pit of Rejection?

(That’s just how it happens.)

Well, there’s another variants on this theme.

There’s the “we’ll only write up that outcome measure ’cause it says what we want it to show” bias (aka ‘selective outcome reporting’)

And then there’s the “can’t be arsed” bias, where studies just don’t even get written up or presented as their overwhelming lack of showing anything leads their authors to torpor. I particularly hate systematic reviews of case reports for this trouble.

And it happens with normal people too. A really lovely piece of work shows that Amazon dieting reviews show massive publication bias, probably by self-selection, and that folk buy into believing them wholeheartedly. As PT Barnum said – “there’s one born every minute”.

– Archi