The other problem with the study is the use of priming. Priming means that people give you the answer you told them to give. At a simple level, it is the difference between asking, “What color was the car?” versus “The car was white, wasn’t it?” In the study by Kesselheim and colleagues, a close look at the methods reveals that three times, prior to the survey, doctors were reminded that the study they were participating in was “not associated with any pharmaceutical manufacturer.” This repeated mention of funding source arguably primed readers to be more vigilant about the funding source of
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