Ice bucket challenge “breakthrough”? Experts pour cold water on superficial reporting

Format: 2-2 Comparison groups should be similar

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Language/s: 3-6 Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

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Resource Link: View the Text

Target Audience: 2-9 Reviews of fair comparisons should be systematic

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Short Description:

Beware claims of treatment breakthrough. They’re probably not.

Key Concepts addressed:

• Deutsche
• 2-14 Average measures of effects can be misleading

Details

The Ice Bucket Challenge — those videos of friends, family members, and celebrities dumping ice water on themselves to promote awareness and funding of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research — was a veritable media sensation in 2014.

Now comes the heartwarming follow-up: According to an ALS Association news release, those donation-inducing videos helped fund a discovery that many news outlets are calling a “breakthrough”

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