Fake news project
Instructions: For this project, you will find an online article in the popular press (online news sources,
blogs, e-magazines, e-newspapers, etc.) that makes a claim about a research finding in psychological
science. You will pair up with two partners (group of 3) to work on this project.
First, you will find a recent (within the past 3 months or less) online popular press article that reports
findings from psychological science. You will review the article, and then critically evaluate it to assess its
credibility. We will discuss the methods used in psychological science to assess knowledge claims when
we discuss the chapters on Critical Thinking and Research Strategies in Psychological Science. You should
apply your knowledge from those chapters and our discussions to make a sound judgment about the
knowledge claims in the online article and be prepared to justify your judgment.
Specifically, be sure to answer each part of the following questions to receive full credit, and write up your
responses to them in a short essay-style paper:
1. Do the authors make a claim for correlation or causation in their findings? What does the title of the article suggest (correlation or causation)? Why do you think so? What language do the authors
use in the article itself to indicate correlation or causation? Explain your answer. (4 points)
2. What evidence do the authors provide to support the claim? Do you think their claim is justified? Why or why not? (4 points)
3. What theoretical rationale do the authors provide to support the claim? Do you think their rationale is solid? Why or why not? (4 points)
4. Were the research methods explained in the article sound? Why or why not? Explain the methods and then critically assess how sound they were. (4 points)
5. Based on the soundness of the overall article, would you follow (or buy into) the authors’ claims or not? That is – is it “fake news” or not? Be sure to explain why you think so. (4 points)
PSYC 101, General Psychology
Project #1: Fake News or Not?
SPRING 2020
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