Hacker News Reader

Getting a perfectly representative subset of the population, means surveying the whole population of the world. Also, accounting for every imaginable variable is always impossible, because we cannot ethically grow people in an isolated environment.

Sure, a meta-analysis of several studies reveals more than one single study, but that doesn't make a single study bad or worthless - or as said in the parent - "a bullshit study".

View on HN

There are plenty of ways to account for not having a representative sample distribution, I'm just saying that I didn't see any kind of discussion about demographics or confounding variables in the actual study.

This was a pilot study, a way to open an avenue of discussion, and to be sure I think the study warrants more investigation. They even say so: "In future we would like to conduct larger studies over multiple countries."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com