SHOULD fashionable scientific findings be subject to a higher burden of proof? Yes, says a study that found links between the research popularity of certain proteins and the accuracy of reports about their behaviour.
Researchers have previously suspected that trendy fields may attract spurious results, for two reasons. First, because there are greater rewards for getting positive results, so there is a stronger incentive to massage data or ignore outliers. Second, because more groups test trendy hypotheses. This would lead to more negative results, too, but the positive ones get reported more.
Now biologist Thomas Pfeiffer at Harvard University…
