Scientific evidence is data gathered by the scientific method of experimentation in support of or against a hypothesis. To further validate scientific research, before publication in most scholarly journals, scientific research is reviewed by a panel of experts to determine if it meets scientific standards. This process is called “peer review.” With so many clickbait headlines about public health issues in today’s media, it is important to be able to distinguish between scientific evidence, anecdotal stories, misinformation, and opinions. Another important concept to understand is the difference between correlation (two things that happen together) and causation (one thing causes the other thing). The observation that ice cream sales and homicide increase at the same time (correlation), does not mean that buying ice cream causes murders (causation). I hope you find these resources helpful.
