Once again, The Onion publishes satire research (which should be, like, a submission category for JPSP) claiming to study phrases uttered before food poisoning happens . https://www.theonion.com/report-saying-smells-okay-precedes-85-of-foodborne-1819579726 I've turned this fake research into fake data to conduct an actual chi-square test of goodness of fit. Here is data that will give you a significant chi square, with 85% of participants falling into the "smells okay" category. Did sick person say aid "Smells Okay" before eating leftovers? No Yes 19 106

In the past, I've used fake data based on real research to create stats class examples. Baby names, NICUs, and paired t-test . Pain, surgical recovery, and ANOVA . Today, I've decided to use fake data and fake research to create a real example for teaching one-sample t-test. It uses  this research report from The Onion: https://www.theonion.com/toddler-scientists-finally-determine-number-of-peas-tha-1820347088 In this press release, the baby scientists claim that the belief that a baby could only smash four peas into their ear canal were false. Based upon new research recommendations, that number has been revised to six. Which sure sounds like a one-sample t-test to me. Four is the mu assumed true based upon previous baby ear research. And the sample data had a mean of 6, and this was statistically significant. Here is some dummy data that I created that replicates these findings, when mu/test value is set to 4. : 5.00 6.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 6.00 6.00 5.0...

Bahahaha. A very funny example of conflict of interest, as this satirical study was sponsored by Red Robin.  Click through to the original content to rea d how the study replaced "I Voted" stickers with " thick Red Robin Gourmet Cheeseburger complete with pickle relish, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, mayonnaise, and their choice of cheese". http://creative.theonion.com/ads/onion-ring/article/study-giving-away-ldquoi-votedrdquo-burger-instead-of-sticker-would-increase-voter-turnout-by-80

http://www.theonion.com/articles/study-finds-those-with-deceased-family-members-at,38463/ Man, I love the fact that when The Onion does an article about pretend research , they don't skimp on the details. This story includes the journal (NEJM), n -size (85,000), research design (longitudinal), a lead author, covariates (race, nationality, etc.) as well as a replication study. I like to think that the person who writes these articles paid really close attention in a statistics class or a research methods class and remembers just enough to be a smart ass about the research process. From the article: I used this just last week as a review example of correlation =/= causation. The students liked it. Mission accomplished.

A study performed by The Public Religion Research Institute  used either a) a telephone survey or b) an anonymous web survey to question people about their religious beliefs and religious service habits. The researchers found that the telephone participants reported higher rates of religious behaviors and greater theistic beliefs. The figure below,  from a New York Times summary of the study , visualizes the main findings. The NYT summary also provides figures illustrating the data broken down by religious denomination. Property of the New York Times Participants also vary in their reported religious beliefs based on how they are surveyed (below, the secular are more likely to report that they don't believe in God when completing an anonymous online survey). Property of Public Religion Research Institute  This report could be used in class to discuss psychometrics, sampling, motivation to lie on surveys, social desirability, etc. Additionally, the sour...

Slate's The Littlest Tasters More research methods than statistics, this article describes the difficulty in determining taste preferences in wee humans who don't speak well if at all. slate.com The goods for teaching: They mention the FACE scale. The research methods described go beyond marketing research and this could be useful in a Developmental class to describe approaches used in data collection for children (like asking parents to rate their children's reactions to foods). I've used this as a discussion board prompt when discussing research ethics, both for simply conducting research with children as well as the ethics of marketing (not so healthy foods) towards children. Aside: They also describe why kids like Lunchables, which has always been a mystery to me. Apparently, kids are picky about texture and flavor but they haven't developed a preference for certain foods to be hot or cold. The Huffington Post's " You'll Never Look at ...

I am teaching positive psychology for the first time this semester. One way to quickly teach students that this isn't just Happy Psych. 101 is to show them convincing data collected by an international organization (here, the United Nations) that demonstrates the link between positive psychology and the well-being of nations. This data isn't just for a positive psychology class: You could also use it more broadly to demonstrate how research methods have to be adjusted when data is collected internationally (see item 4) and as examples of different kinds of data analysis (as described under item 1). 1) Report on international happiness data from the United Nations . If you look through the data collected, there is a survival analysis related to longevity and affect on page 66. A graphic on page 21 describes factors that account for global variance in happiness levels across countries. There is also a lot of data about mental health care spending in different nations. 2 ...

Ha. This story is a good example of just how frustrating research can be, how well conceived research can go wrong, the ceiling effect, and why you should pre-test measures before going live. "Above, researchers discuss plans for a new maze, since the prick of a mouse, right, destroyed their chances of making any new discoveries whatsoever about the nature of synaptical response." -TheOnion.com

The language blue, so use at your own risk...  but this faux debate is hilarious . I use it in my I/O and statistics classes to illustrate reliability, psychometric concerns related to test takers who are not totally engaged in their task, etc.

Calm down. This is a  satirical video from TheOnion  that goes into gory detail about a research project that suggests that stabbing may be fatal in monkeys. I show it in my statistics classes because it touches on 1) research methods, 2) replication and extension, and 3) control groups (monkeys who were merely punched). And it is comedy gold.   property of theonion.com

I use this video clip to introduce probability, especially since I focus on the Equal Likelihood Outcome model. Also, I work at a liberal arts university, so all of my students have had Introduction to Philosophy by the time they take my statistics class (which can make this video funny in a different way).