the field of educational research is the worst for this. they would have studies that were self report surveys of fewer than 10 kids and they would suggest actual policy changes based on that! And then by the time some asshole at the New York Times tries to understand it and hype and politicize it then all of the original research is practically pointless. Like when Goddard published his research about rockets working in space in 1920 and the NYT wrote an editorial saying he didn't understand Newton's laws and was an idiot.