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How to unsuccessfully defend your brand using crap data: A primer

As I write this blog post, Francis Haugen testifies on Capitol Hill and sheds light on some of Facebook's shady practices. TL;DR- Facebook realizes that its practices are support terrorism. 

This led to a public relations blitz from Facebook, including Monika Bickert, who appeared on CNN. Of particular relevance is repeated reference made to an Instagram survey of 40 teens (here is the documentation I was able to find).

I saw this tweet from Asha Rangappa Reaction about one of those interviews:

https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1445487820580081674


This example packs a lot of punch. It is a good one for the youths because it is about social media. And if you are a fellow psychologist who teaches statistics, this is an excellent example since it discusses user affect. Here are some takeaways that you could use in class:

Sampling Error

In my classes, we usually discuss how sampling error occurs due to imperfect samples to estimate whole populations. And sometimes sampling error feels...a bit less accidental like in this example, which drew upon 40 girls in London and Los Angeles.

Peer review

In the interview, the FB representative admitted that the data was not peer-reviewed. So who gave their stamp of approval? A bunch of suits at FB, not a group of objective scientists. Which could lead to a discussion about...

Conflict of Interest

Like...FB is defending itself with one tiny study instead of looking at the larger body of research about the ill effects of Facebook (LMGTFY: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C39&q=negative+side+effects+of+facebook&btnG=).

If you are teaching a research methods class, this discussion could THEN lead into a class activity in which you, as your students, 

"What research methodology COULD figure out if social media use hurt users?"

Spoiler: If you search for "negative side effects of Facebook" in Google Scholar, you get almost 1.5 million hits (LMGTFY: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C39&q=negative+side+effects+of+facebook&btnG=)

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