Based on trust alone

Conflicting interests

Conflicting interests may result in misleading claims about the effects of interventions.

People with an interest in promoting an intervention (in addition to wanting to help people), such as making money or becoming famous and respected may promote that intervention by exaggerating benefits and ignoring potential negative effects. Conversely, people may be opposed to an intervention for a range of reasons, such as cultural practices.

For example, a commercial company advertising a new literacy intervention may exaggerate the benefits to sell more copies of the intervention. But such biases may not always be conscious. They may be subtle unconscious biases affecting people’s behaviour.

BEWARE of claims about interventions that are made by people who make money from selling the intervention.

REMEMBER: Ask if people making claims that an intervention is effective have conflicting interests. If they have conflicting interests, be careful not to be misled by their claims about the effects.