Psience Quest

Full Version: Study Reveals Amazing Surge in Scientific Hype
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https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cro...ific-hype/


"The authors examined the frequency of 25 positive words—from “amazing” and “astonishing” to “unique” and “unprecedented”--in abstracts listed in the biomedical database PubMed between 1974 and 2014. Here is how they summarize their results in the British Medical Journal, BMJ:

The absolute frequency of positive words increased from 2.0% (1974-80) to 17.5% (2014), a relative increase of 880% over four decades. All 25 individual positive words contributed to the increase, particularly the words “robust,” “novel,” “innovative,” and “unprecedented,” which increased in relative frequency up to 15,000%."