Writing a paper, results and discussion – day 2: negative results and contradictory findings
Free PreviewPhrases for describing negative or contradictory findings
Many studies result in contradictory findings or produce negative results that do not match your hypotheses. The results of these studies could still be interesting and worthwhile to document. Below are some useful phrases below for presenting these findings.
Negative results
There was no detectable effect on…
There was no correlation between [x] and [y]…
The results of [x] were negative…
There was no increase of…
There was no significant difference between the control and study group…
With minimal difference between…
Only one group showed any significant change…
With little impact on…
It seems unlikely [x] was affected…
We recorded no change in…
The study was unsuccessful in…
Contradictory results
The results contain a number of contradictions…
These results give the opposite…
The opposite of the…
These results are in direct opposition to…
It remains unclear why…
Contrary to earlier findings…
These results show that in reality…
The reverse of our expectations…
In contrast to previous studies
The difference shown…
There is an important distinction…
These results differ significantly from…
Now read through the extract below to see some examples of phrases for negative results used in a discussion.
Individual exploratory responses are not repeatable across time or context for four species of food-storing corvid
Discussion
Across four corvid species, we investigated whether an individual’s exploratory behaviour might be considered as a personality trait. Specifically, we investigated the temporal and contextual repeatability of an individual’s exploratory behaviour, by examining behaviour across repeated trials for two different tasks. Our results showed that only some behavioural variables were repeatable over time for each task and for each species. Particularly, the latency to visit the first tree was repeatable for three of the four corvid species during the Novel Environment task, and may be considered partial evidence supporting a personality trait. However, overall, the lack of repeatability may also be partially explained by reduced novelty, as with repeated exposure the environment, novelty is necessarily reduced. As individuals became more familiar with the environment, the number of movements they made and the number of trees they visited decreased54,55. The species studied all are food-storing corvids with strong spatial memory capabilities, therefore it may be expected that these species would reduce exploration due to environmental familiarity. Thus, behavioural variables examined during subsequent trials may not accurately represent an individual’s exploratory behaviour in more novel envrionments13,56.
The above exract is taken from: Vernouillet, A., Kelly, D.M. Individual exploratory responses are not repeatable across time or context for four species of food-storing corvid. Sci Rep 10, 394 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56138-y
Important phrases from the extract
we investigated whether: setting out the parameters of the study
results showed that only some behavioural variables: ‘only some’ highlights a partial result
for three of the four corvid species… considered partial evidence supporting: showing some positive result, but not complete
the lack of repeatability: highlights that the positive result could not be completed
be partially explained by: offers some explanation for the negative result
it may be expected: to describe what could have been expected
variables examined… may not accurately represent an: describing the negative finding
Further study for this week
This week you can try to write a results or discussion section describing the main findings of a recent study. Try the short quiz below to test your understanding.