This is the first of a series on the science behind the headlines. Yeah, everyone's busy and who wants to spend their precious time checking the original studies to make sure the headlines and their accompanying articles got it right. Tough luck.

It's not all that hard or time-consuming to check the actual study behind a headline. If the article doesn't provide a link to the academic paper being cited, judge the publication (shame on them!) and then Google Scholar the paper - or at a bare minimum, the paper's Abstract. If you're able to access the entire paper but it's too much to read  the whole thing, just read the Abstract, Introduction, Methods and Conclusion (and skim the rest). This takes a couple minutes. The more often you do it, the faster you get.

Then consider two things:

  1. Did the headline accurately capture the gist of the study?

  2. Were the study's conclusions warranted?

Next: an application of the Method