# Which subject is the toughest when it comes to finding good information? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 25, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770 "2012-09-25T13:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MDKSquared](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MDKSquared](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MDKSquared)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/1 "2012-09-25T13:12:00Z")
Any subjects irritate you? Creationist dogma when trying to learn more about evolution/physics? Voodoo economics/fabricated history in the political arena? Broscience in the bodybuilding realm? There are a lot of complex subjects out there, and sometimes it’s hard to sift through all the BS out there in order to actually arrive at something resembling truth. Whether it’s due to public misinformation campaigns, heavy anti-funding, general misconceptions/rumors, poor teaching, lack of good information, inherently complex subject matter, or a conflation of correlation/causation, some subjects are just _hard_ to learn about because they require so much education/research, and much of it is simply aimed at getting good sources! Which subject infuriates you when it comes to correcting ignorance and why? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/2 "2012-09-25T13:17:10Z")
I think the two most obfuscated in online sources are climate science and economics. It doesn’t take much looking to find very solid sources for biology, physics, and the “harder” sciences. There’s a lot of dodgy social science out there too - mainly from pop-sci writers that take reasonably solid studies way beyond their bounds (Malcolm Gladwell, the Freakonomics folks, and their ilk). But that’s _mostly_ harmless stuff, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![dataguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eada6e/32.png) [@dataguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dataguy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/3 "2012-09-25T14:09:44Z")
I vote for medical information. Especially as related to drugs. The medical information pool has been so heavily influenced by pharmaceutical companies that it is difficult to find complete, unbiased information. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/4 "2012-09-25T14:11:54Z")
Nutrition. Not only is there a boatload of woo out there, but the “truly scientific” answers seem to reverse themselves every ten years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/5 "2012-09-25T15:18:49Z")
Government or Philosphy, probably. Because, mainly, its all just your opinion and multiple thing would work for any given situation. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/6 "2012-09-25T15:25:17Z")
Neuroscience is pretty bad. I’d love to read a good layman’s introduction to current advances in brain study, but all the popular neuroscience books seem to be self-help woo with titles like: _Think Like a Marmoset: What Brain Science Tells Us About Eating Cake, Smoking Weed, and Having Mind-Blowing Orgasms_. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/7 "2012-09-25T15:32:12Z")
I’m voting for economics. Climate science is much more clearly divided into crazy-stupid-greedy wishful thinking and science, while economics is full of counter-intuitive “truths”. Frankly I do not understand the basis of economics at all, and it isn’t just because I am bad with numbers. Nutrition has the wishful thinking element but is also clouded by what I call the blubber argument: people can live pretty well on whale blubber and the contents of the stomachs of marine mammals, so what do we actually know about nutrition for certain? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/8 "2012-09-25T17:51:18Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Neuroscience is pretty bad. I’d love to read a good layman’s introduction to current advances in brain study, but all the popular neuroscience books seem to be self-help woo with titles like: _Think Like a Marmoset: What Brain Science Tells Us About Eating Cake, Smoking Weed, and Having Mind-Blowing Orgasms_. I’m not sure if it meets your definition of layman, but wouldn’t a good review article in something like [Trends in Neurosciences](http://www.cell.com/trends/neurosciences/) be what you’re looking for? Or are you looking for the brain science equivalent of [A Brief History of Time?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Brief_History_of_Time). ---
**Author:** ![llcoolbj77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@llcoolbj77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/llcoolbj77)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/9 "2012-09-25T19:21:24Z")
child rearing ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/10 "2012-09-25T20:13:34Z")
**My local government** , there has been an ongoing shit storm for years between our local zoning board, the school system and elected officials. Both sides calling everyone else liars. That everyone is acting like children is clear, all the facts however, are in complete dispute. I envy you guys out there that don’t live in a small town and have more choices for political discourse available than snarky editorials sandwiched between hunting license information and the schedules for Lutheran ice cream socials. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/11 "2012-09-25T21:14:30Z")
Economics. Keynesian economic theory is misunderstood by almost everyone. In an information age where information can be copied ad infinitum we still treat it in theory as if it were a commodity where only one person can own it. Nutrition and to some extent the medical science. Medicine is probably the worst science for holding onto past theories well past the time they should be re-examined. Plus the attitude that they are correct and ignore any emprical evidence to the contrary. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/12 "2012-09-25T21:16:05Z")
Women. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/13 "2012-09-25T21:30:48Z")
> [@dataguy](#): > > I vote for medical information. Especially as related to drugs. > > The medical information pool has been so heavily influenced by pharmaceutical companies that it is difficult to find complete, unbiased information. Medical information is one good answer, and pharmaceutical company influence is only one of several reasons. See the _Atlantic_ article “[Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/308269/#).” > [@](#): > > Ioannidis laid out a detailed mathematical proof that, assuming modest levels of researcher bias, typically imperfect research techniques, and the well-known tendency to focus on exciting rather than highly plausible theories, researchers will come up with wrong findings most of the time. Simply put, if you’re attracted to ideas that have a good chance of being wrong, and if you’re motivated to prove them right, and if you have a little wiggle room in how you assemble the evidence, you’ll probably succeed in proving wrong theories right. His model predicted, in different fields of medical research, rates of wrongness roughly corresponding to the observed rates at which findings were later convincingly refuted: 80 percent of non-randomized studies (by far the most common type) turn out to be wrong, as do 25 percent of supposedly gold-standard randomized trials, and as much as 10 percent of the platinum-standard large randomized trials. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/14 "2012-09-27T00:46:44Z")
Nutrition . . . including pharmaceuticals, supplements and weight control. ---
**Author:** ![al27052](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@al27052](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/al27052)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/15 "2012-09-27T00:53:41Z")
Nutrition I can’t believe two other people already said nutrition. I figured I’d be the only one. ---
**Author:** ![vectorsdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5fc32e/32.png) [@vectorsdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vectorsdog)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/16 "2012-10-06T18:35:52Z")
Experimental Psy…Great things are found out. Kept under wraps… ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/17 "2012-10-07T07:31:40Z")
Economics. And not just the politics. Some of it is counter-intuitive, and there’s very little of it that’s subject to being proven wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-subject-is-the-toughest-when-it-comes-to-finding-good-information/635770/18 "2012-10-07T18:59:17Z")
> [@vectorsdog](#): > > Experimental Psy…Great things are found out. Kept under wraps… Can you explain?