Scientists tell celebrities to get facts straight in promoting products

Even celebrities make mistakes, apparently. A report written by Sense About Science talks about the many factual errors celebrities and artists have made during the past year while endorsing products of a scientific nature.

For more information, check out the full article!

“Before making scientific claims, check your facts – all it takes is a phone call”. This was the challenge put up by a leaflet called “Sense About… Science for Celebrities” written and compiled by several scientists detailing the many factual errors made by various celebrities and artists during the past year while endorsing products of scientific nature.

Even Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman was noted to have made a factual faux pas by stating that: “I’ve quickly found that training my brain is a great way to keep my mind feeling young.” She said this relating to her endorsement of Nintendo’s Brain Age 2.

Dr. Jason Braithwaite, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham contested Kidman’s statement by saying:

While practice at any task should lead to some form of improvement for that specific task, it is not clear that this improvement reflects anything other than a basic learned process for that specific task.

Either way, we can’t deny the fact that puzzle games like Brain Age 2 is a good way to “exercise” brain cells while having a fun doing so. Nicole Kidman definitely looks like she’s having fun playing the game – you can watch the video of her commercial below.

For those of you who are interested in reading the full report, you can download the “Sense About… Science for Celebrities” document through the Via link.