Something popped into my mind while I was reading about the example in the very beginning. What about research that goes out to prove one thing, but discovers something else?
Group of scientists want to see if there’s a link between the consumption of Coca-Cola and stomach cancer. They put together a huge questionnaire full of dozens of questions and have 1000 people fill it out. Looking at the data they discover that there is no correlation between Coca-Cola drinking and stomach cancer, but there is a correlation between excessive sneezing and having large ears.
So now we have a group of scientists who set out to test correlation A, but found correlation B in the data instead. Should they publish a paper about correlation B?
This needs to be turned into a short film. Now!