Scientists: "Meddling" Kids Skew Studies By Trolling As LGBTQ

Scientists and researchers who study LGBTQ youth are finding a new (annoying) phenomenon: meddling kids who think it's funny to troll giving exaggerated responses to surveys while identifying as LGBTQ, especially regarding eating habits or substance use.

Those 'funny' answers end up skewing data in regard to health issues and more.

From The Daily Beast:

NYU economics professor Joseph R. Cimpian, whose new study in the American Journal of Public Health explores this emerging problem, said that he was tipped off to its potential scale when he noticed how frequently the ostensibly gay kids on one survey reported being blind—way beyond what would be expected.

“What we found is that ‘gay’ kids are way more likely to be blind and to be deaf and to have three or more children of their own and all sorts of things,” he told The Daily Beast. “When you look at these data, you think, ‘This is ridiculous!’”

There was only one conclusion: “Clearly the kids are messing with us.”