Three Stupid Studies That Waste Money
Posted by: Carrie Wasterlain
Filed in:
news
11:20AM, Monday June 22nd 2009
Three new studies have come out over the weekend that do anything but blow my mind. In fact, they annoy and perplex me. I’m all for research, but not when my tax dollars are funding what seems to be the accumulation of useless information. After the jump, three studies we could have done without.
- The first study revealed that those living close to fast food restaurants are more likely to be overweight or obese. Considering that a Big Mac boasts over 700 calories and 44 grams of fat, this is hardly a surprise. In fact, it’s just plain obvious. So why on earth are we wasting time and money to come up with conclusions we are already well aware of? We know fast food is unhealthy and we know that when people need to eat in a hurry, they gravitate towards what’s easiest to acquire. Let’s spend our money on coming up with ways to fight obesity, instead of reiterating its existence.
- Another study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, dropped half a million bucks in attempts to answer the question: “Why don’t men like to wear condoms during sex?” Here’s an answer that’s free and accurate: putting them on ruins the mood, they make sex less pleasurable, and, most obvious, men don’t like suffocating their packages with rubber. ‘Nuff said.
- A third study came to the conclusion that there is a gene in certain individuals’ DNA that makes them more likely to join a gang. While this is semi-interesting, I’m not sure what the relevance is. Are we going to try to stop people with the MAOA gene (the one that supposedly encourages gang-joining) from reproducing? Are we going to check up on these people and send them to anti-gang support groups? Probably not. The leader of the study, Kevin Beaver, said that, “for the most part, people haven’t really thought of the biological or genetic underpinnings to gang membership.” Maybe that’s for good reason.
Let’s spend our money on research that has a point, or at least says something new.
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CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on June 22 2009 @ 11:43 am: [report]
I’m putting in a request with the NIH for a million dollars as to why men love beer and pizza so much. I’ll get back to you Frisky people with my results in a couple years. BRB.
joyy
wrote on June 22 2009 @ 12:12 pm: [report]
To get money to try to address a problem (especially from the gov), you need to have data on the issue and its contributing factors. Are you people not aware of how the world works outside of the blogosphere?
Data linking proximity to fast food with overweight/obesity is part of HOW YOU GET THE MONEY TO ADDRESS THE OBESITY PROBLEM in specific ways. I can’t remember if this got passed or not, but wasn’t there a thing in LA or NYC poor neighborhoods where they wanted to ban new fast food places from going up, or being certain distances from schools?
Data like the one this study will serve up provide your local governments with the proof they need when trying to develop say, zoning policies that will change part of the environment causing the problem. For instance, if they can develop zoning/city planning policies/strategies that would bring grocery stores rather than fast food places to, say, poor neighborhoods, then you’ve made some progress.
A study finding out why men don’t use condoms is necessary so that you have evidence of what those reasons are, especially for different demographics. The elderly do not have the same thought process as high school students when it comes to not wearing condoms. Without hard (heh) evidence on those reasons, you can’t effectively develop appropriate strategies to try to get men to WEAR condoms.
Do you want government money meant to reduce STDs and unplanned pregnancy spent on programs that were developed by people sitting around assuming what the problems are or actually finding out legitimately so that they can address those problems in the most effective way possible?
Skwisgiirl
wrote on June 22 2009 @ 05:33 pm: [report]
@ the OP: The plural of anecdote is not data. Common sense doesn’t mean anything without statistical significance, which you need to get anything really done.
@ joyy: Amen. My whole life has become about pleasing the NIH—it’s amazing how different science becomes once you’re part of it.