Interviews: Ask Malcolm Gladwell a Question

Malcolm Gladwell is a speaker, author, and staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. Gladwell's writing often focuses on research in the social sciences and the unexpected connections or theories made from such research. His books: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Outliers: The Story of Success, and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants are all New York Times best sellers. Malcolm has agreed to give us some of his time to answer any question you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.

Comments

what is good research?

[globaljustin]

Mr. Gladwell, thanks a bunch for taking questions from us! I read you book 'Blink' and it was definitely value-added, esp. the story about war games...and how they gamed the war games.

My question: How do you, personally, evaluate research science? How do you differentiate the good research from hype? What is your process for evaluating scientific research?

I ask because everyone in media is quoting "research" now..."pop science" is a thing in our culture...I'm interested in how *you* a person known for writing about science, evaluates the research.

___________

When I did data analysis in grad school, any human survey research would automatically send me to the Methodology section to see **the actual text of the questionaire** that was given. I find that helps me fight through the hype of an unscrupulous article