After reading this article, I can agree with the author that checking the sources of a research study and how the study was performed is extremely important. Many people just believe the words of studies without doing their own research and really thinking about whether or not it makes sense. People see “facts” and take them as they come, not really checking to see if it is true or not. Some researchers even try and get away with missing information in their reports and hope that no one notices, and sometimes no one notices and things that aren’t really true can be believed as true. Researchers can basically write anything they want and call it a “study” and some people will actually believe it is true, no matter how outlandish the “proof” is. This can actually be seen with the anti-vaccination movement. The doctor who did the study that “proved” autism is caused by vaccines had his entire research debunked and even got his license to practice medicine taken away, but because some people believe that all studies are true even if they are debunked, many children are not being vaccinated anymore, proving the danger of not fact-checking research studies.
This concept will be extremely important when writing the paradigm shift essay. In the essay a lot of research will be included, and if that research isn’t thought about or fact-checked, then a lot of misinformation can be included, creating a slew of problems in the essay. The essay requires more than just listing facts from random studies found on the internet. It requires thought and skepticism and connecting the dots between research throughout the ages, and if you believe everything every study says, then the paradigm shift essay might just be a boring research paper with no original thought and experiences. Not all research studies are actually factual and true, but most studies look the same when written in a formal way on the internet, and it is hard to tell the difference between a real study and one that was completely made up unless you reflect upon and draw on your own experiences and other research.
It is dangerous to believe everything someone tells you in this society, as many people may lie and lead you on the wrong path, so why would you blindly follow a research study without fact-checking and critically analyzing it? Not everything on the internet is true, and even if the person writing the article or research paper believes it is true, their methods might have been wrong or they might have analyzed the data the wrong way. No research study, especially those in the field of human study, is completely accurate, but it is important to be able to tell whether or not it is accurate enough to be used in this paradigm shift paper.
It is definitely important to check the sources you use before incorporating them into a work. The example of misinformation in the anti-vaccine movement is definitely a good one to represent how this sort of confusion can negatively influence people. However, because that movement is so widely rejected and ridiculed, it is important to remember that this same issue is prevalent in controversial topics as well, and that misinformation is a problem that affects all of us.Regardless, good response!