Introduction

Research results are often interpreted and there is room for interpretation that allows multiple formulations. As researchers want to be read and want to be heard, sometimes these interpretations are exaggerated.  

Exaggeration can occur especially in the communication with the public. In 2014 an article was published which investigated the amount of exaggeration (Sumner et al., 2014). The researchers concluded that 40% of the investigated sample of university press releases contained more direct and explicit advice than the original journal article did, 33% of the sample contained stronger deterministic relations than did the original journal article and 36% of the sample made an stronger inference from the result obtained on animals to a possible effect on humans.

Furthermore, they concluded that exaggeration in news is strongly associated with the exaggeration in the university press releases.

In a follow-up study investigating press releases from prominent science and medical journals (Sumner et al., 2016), they found lower rates of exaggeration of advice (26%) and correlations (21%).