Honesty and drug use: two scientific studies

Newspapers are not always truthful, but sometimes it is hard to fathom why.  A columnist whose work I often admire recently wrote about an academic study into honesty which apparently found that people in European countries tend to be more honest than people in Africa or Asia.

The study did not link the findings with race but with the level of government corruption in different countries, and it is not surprising that a British newspaper should be happy to report that race is not the issue.

What is harder to comprehend is that the columnist completely misrepresented the nature of the study.  It appears that young people in various countries were invited to roll a die twice in secret and then report the score on their first roll.  People who reported a high score were rewarded with money, and so there was an obvious incentive to lie.

The columnist reported that participants had been secretly filmed, and so the people carrying out the study knew which participants were telling the truth.  The curious thing is that this was not true.  I say curious for two reasons.  The first is that there was no obvious reason for the columnist to misrepresent this fact.  The second is that it arguably undermines the entire study.  How can we argue that one group of people are more honest than another when we don't actually know whether or not any of them were lying?

At least one national newspaper today is reporting a study into the effects of prolonged cannabis use, which apparently include an increased tendency to financial problems and to antisocial behaviour.  The comments however are not favourable.  Many of the most highly rated comments refer to people who smoke cannabis and who have  successful careers.  I imagine that there may be a lot of truth in that.

One comment that is worth repeating is that because cannabis use is illegal, a lot of professional people who smoke cannabis would be unwilling to admit it publicly.  That alone might skew the results of any scientific study into cannabis use.

Most of us have met people who live to a great age and enjoy fairly good health despite leading an unhealthy lifestyle.  Likewise, it is perhaps unsurprising that there should be people out there who take illegal drugs without any obvious bad effects.

In other news, Kathryn Smith and her boyfriend Matthew Rigby are on trial for the murder of their young child Ayeeshia Jane Smith, who may have died after accidentally consuming cannabis.  Meanwhile, cannabis user Clayton Smith begins his sentence for the manlaughter of PC Dave Phillips.