Biased reporting example: Children with ADHD have smaller brains (and higher IQ)

By | 01/07/2017

Biased reporting example: a study claims that children with ADHD have smaller brains and forgets to highlight the higher IQ scores. Information about the IQ of childen with ADHD can be found only in the appendix of the study, not available in the free version. Media immediately published the news with the headlines “Study Finds Brains of ADHD Sufferers Are Smaller” (Newsweek), “Brains of those with ADHD show smaller structure related to emotion” (CNN). It is not hard to see that such headlines are not going to reduce stigma. Not a single headline mentioned better IQ scores of children with ADHD, a fact that could be quite interesting for discussion and future research as well as for reducing stigma. Imagine the headline: “Study finds children with ADHD have higher IQ scores”. However this fact apparently doesn’t fit into the disease model chosen by the researchers. As for the smaller brain, analysis of the article shows that the study fails to prove the difference.