I found this one from the table of reversals to be interesting:
Article: Efficacy of infant simulator programmes to prevent teenage pregnancy: a school-based cluster randomised controlled trial in Western Australia
Summary: The infant simulator is an example of persuasion technology or captology, where the use is intended to prevent teenage pregnancy.26 Their use is widespread in developed countries27 and is expanding into low-income and middle-income countries.28 However, in this study done in Australia, the infant simulator-based VIP program did not reduce teenage pregnancy. In fact, girls in the intervention group (n=1,267) were more likely to experience a birth (8% vs. 4%; HR=1.35; 95% CI=1.06-1.73; p=0.016) or an induced abortion (9% vs. 6%; HR=1.33 (1.00-1.78; p=0.049) than those in the control group (n=1,567) before they reached 20 years of age. This is a reversal of the practice of infant simulator programs to prevent teenage pregnancy.
A school district I contract with purchased some of these "infant simulators" a few years ago. I shared spooky photos of them entombed in foam in their storage cases (evoking visions of racks of "hibernating" astronauts from sci-fi) with my wife. She made a general observation that she thought some fraction of teenage girls would feel encouraged to have a baby after time w/ the infant simulator. Guess there was some truth to that intuition after all.
I can't find the study now, but I read previously that even filling in a questionare asking about tennagers sexual history (or lack of) increases the chance of those teenagers having children and abortions. I assume at that in some level this seeds the idea of sex and babies in a group that might have not had that thought, opportunity or imputus otherwise.
Article: Efficacy of infant simulator programmes to prevent teenage pregnancy: a school-based cluster randomised controlled trial in Western Australia
Summary: The infant simulator is an example of persuasion technology or captology, where the use is intended to prevent teenage pregnancy.26 Their use is widespread in developed countries27 and is expanding into low-income and middle-income countries.28 However, in this study done in Australia, the infant simulator-based VIP program did not reduce teenage pregnancy. In fact, girls in the intervention group (n=1,267) were more likely to experience a birth (8% vs. 4%; HR=1.35; 95% CI=1.06-1.73; p=0.016) or an induced abortion (9% vs. 6%; HR=1.33 (1.00-1.78; p=0.049) than those in the control group (n=1,567) before they reached 20 years of age. This is a reversal of the practice of infant simulator programs to prevent teenage pregnancy.
A school district I contract with purchased some of these "infant simulators" a few years ago. I shared spooky photos of them entombed in foam in their storage cases (evoking visions of racks of "hibernating" astronauts from sci-fi) with my wife. She made a general observation that she thought some fraction of teenage girls would feel encouraged to have a baby after time w/ the infant simulator. Guess there was some truth to that intuition after all.