Ever read a headline that intrigued you but then disappointed you when you read the article? Yeah, I’ve been there too.
The impact of headlines is so big, it often determines if people will read on. We skim through them, then decide whether or not to continue reading.
Previously, I’ve written about how misleading media coverage of drug research may be. Now I’m focusing on other types of misleading headlines which you should be aware of when reading health news.
Some Facts
This article overplays the importance of the study by leaving out a key detail: it only examined mice and not humans. If this is important to you, make sure you read the full story.
No one likes too much drama. While dramatic words are common in medical research headlines, it can make the article harder to read. There are some major breakthroughs but they can take a while. It’s true, knowledge tends to accumulate gradually and with every finding always building on what came before.
Headlines often make a big leap of faith when summarizing a study’s findings, here are some good examples. For example, if researchers identify a new type of cell in the blood that increases when a disease is worsening, they may speculate that treatments to reduce those cells might control the disease. “Researchers discover new approach to treatment” says the headline. Sure, that could happen someday and is an interesting discovery, but it wasn’t actually assessing treatment methods in the study.
Focusing mainly on one outcome. Rather than checking how a treatment affects heart disease, let’s say, studies might measure how it affects a major risk factor for it. A good example is cholesterol. It’s great if a drug lowers cholesterol, but much better if it lowers the rate of cardiovascular disease & deaths. It’s really important to understand the difference between a proxy measure and the most important outcome. For example, cholesterol levels are related to risk of death but not on their own predictive.
But… Why?
Why are misleading headlines so common? A major reason is that these headlines attract attention, clicks, reads, subscriptions and influence. Without them many media sites would struggle to get the traction they need to finance their content. Some writers & editors are well known for leaning into hype to get more attention. It scares people, but it doesn’t actually mean it’s right. Other editors may not be trained enough in medical news if they don’t know how to read an article skeptically and carefully.
Misleading health headlines are hard to avoid. That’s why it’s important to be skeptical. Look closely at the source of the information and always read past the headline before jumping to conclusions. And if your go-to media often serves up misleading headlines, consider changing channels or crossing that news source off your list.