Imagine the following (hypothetical) newspaper report: “Researchers gave 100 participants their individual astrological horoscopes and asked whether the horoscopes were accurate. 85% of the participants said their horoscopes were accurate. The researchers concluded that horoscopes are valid most of the time.” Analyze this study according to Guideline 1?

Data From Guideline 1:-

The first thing you should do when you hear about a statistical study is figure out what it was all about; that is, get a big picture view of the study that will allow you to consider its results in an appropriate context. A good starting point for gaining a big picture view comes in trying to answer these basic questions:

• What was the goal of the study?

• What was the population under study? Was the population clearly and appropriately defined?

• Was the study an observational study, an experiment, or a meta-analysis? If it was an observational study, was it retrospective? If it was an experiment, was it single- or double-blind, and were the treatment and control groups properly randomized? Given the goal, was the type of study appropriate?