Biased Science?

One of the trends in science in recent years has been greater corporate involvement in funding research. This has been a mixed blessing, good for the taxpayer because it reduces the government's need to fund science, bad because some science may be done in a way that makes the researcher beholden to the funder. This study, reported on by NPR, shows that when science is paid for by commercial interests, it's much more likely to be favorable to the business that paid for it. Does this mean that scientists are being effectively bribed by business? No, business will generally have a pretty good idea what will be found before a study is funded. So, business will not pay for science likely to be unfavorable. Thus, the statistic is not surprising, nor an inherent sign of bias. It does show that there is a possibility. The audio report raises the specter of bias being introduced by the way questions are asked. Ask any good pollster if they can vary the result of a poll by phrasing the same question differently. The answer will be "yes." As the dairy industry guy notes, they take great pride in the quality of their science and their studies are published in peer-reviewed journals. Still, it means that we should look hard at science to try to understand whether it MAY be biased.