Publication bias

Publication bias is when researchers don't publish studies that have results that aren't interesting. Imagine if you did an experiment, like testing if eating candy helps you learn better. If you get some results that it does help, you might be excited and want to share them with everyone! But if your results show that it doesn't help, you might be disappointed and not want to share them. That's publication bias. Scientists sometimes don't share results that don't show something new or interesting because they don't want to waste everyone's time. This means that when someone looks at all the published studies, they might get a false idea of the truth, because not all the results have been shared.