The details of this story contextualize the use of meta-analysis in an engaging and interesting manner, while providing insights into the use of this method. Hunt also provides brief accounts of meta-analysis employed to study questions about homework and about the relationship between gender and science achievement. The chapter ends with a discussion of the use of meta-analysis to help generate causal explanations. This suggests the possibility that physicians could begin to use new therapies perhaps years before the results of massive clinical trials are completed. Chapter Five reports several cases of meta-analysis applied to the social sciences.
Hunt discusses issues related to the validity of meta-analyses.
The file drawer test determines how many studies with nonsignificant findings would be necessary to negate the meta-analytic findings. Chapter Six illustrates the use of meta-analysis to guide social policy. This chapter gives a rich accounting of the political concerns and realities of producing research for public policy purposes. Brief meta-analytic cases recounted in the chapter include the question of lumpectomy vs. mastectomy treatments for breast cancer and whether secondhand tobacco smoke is indeed, carcinogenic. Chapter Seven is a discussion of the future of meta-analysis.