Oct 22, 2014 12:06 AM EDT By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

It may not be a good idea to blindly trust trivial graphs and formulas.

Researchers from Cornell University found that trivial graphs or formulas accompanying medial information can lead consumers to believe products are more effective.

"Your faith in science may actually make you more likely to trust information that appears scientific but really doesn't tell you much," said Aner Tal, lead author of the study and post-doctoral researcher at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. "Anything that looks scientific can make information you read a lot more convincing."

Tal and his colleagues discovered that when a graph -- with no new information -- was added to the description of a medication, 96.6 percent of people believed that the medicines were effective in reducing illness verses 67.7percent of people who were shown the product information without the graph.

"Even those with professed faith in science were more likely to be swayed by trivial scientific looking product information," said Tal. "In fact, the more people believed in science, the more they were convinced by the graphs."

This means that when people read claims about new products, whether it's a medication or a new technology, they should ask themselves, "where does this information come from?", "what's the basis for the claims being made?"

"Don't let things that look scientific but don't really tell you much fool you. Sometimes a graph is just a graph," Tal added.

The findings were published in Public Understanding of Science.

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