Fix It Dr. Massey Recently Saw a Headline on CNN.com That Read

question 29

Essay

Fix It
Dr. Massey recently saw a headline on CNN.com that read "Kids Who Are Breastfed Are Smarter." She wanted to conduct a study to determine whether this claim is true. To that end, Dr. Massey, who is affiliated with a university in rural North Dakota, contacted her local hospital to obtain a list of all 172 women who gave birth in 2005. She randomly selected 50 women to take part in the study and 18 agreed to participate. Dr. Massey gave all 18 participants the same survey. There were many questions on the survey, but one was critical to testing her hypothesis. It was phrased to determine whether the mothers fed their babies only breast milk for the first year or fed their babies only formula for the first year. This question was then used to divide her participants into two treatment conditions: Breastfed or Formula-fed. Dr. Massey was very pleased to find that exactly half of the women (n = 9) breastfed their babies for one year, and exactly half (n = 9) formula-fed their babies for one year.
To assess intelligence in the children (now 10 years old), Dr. Massey administered an IQ test. Her university does not have access to the most commonly used IQ test so she developed one on her own that she believes to be a comparable assessment of intelligence. Dr. Massey finds that the mean IQ of the breastfed children was 108.5, and the mean IQ of the formula-fed children was 101.0. Based on this information she concludes that breastfeeding does, in fact, causes an increase in intelligence.
Dr. Massey developed her research project based on a CNN headline. What do you think of that? What concerns and limitations do you see with Dr. Massey's study? How might you fix them?

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Definitions:

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of situational factors when explaining other people's behavior.

Prevalent

Widespread in a particular area at a specific time.

Countries

Distinct territorial bodies or political entities recognized as independent nations, often defined by geographical boundaries and governmental sovereignty.

Role

The behavior expected of an individual in a certain position or social context.