wedrifid comments on Even if you have a nail, not all hammers are the same - Less Wrong

95 Post author: PhilGoetz 29 March 2010 06:09PM

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Comment author: wedrifid 30 March 2010 06:48:30PM *  6 points [-]

You seem to have a mild case of pushbutton statistics

Negligence hurts people. In this case it hurts people at the margin, where nutritional advice from misinformed doctors tips the scales. Yet while negligence in surgery is a PR nightmare, there is still a net benefit of prestige to having papers published, read and referenced even when it can be shown that the research is flawed. If only negligent publications came with a commensurate penalty to the credibility of the author and journal, even if only until they published a suitable retraction.