Learn English – What does “studies need to be taken with more than the usual grain of salt” mean

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I found this quote in a psychology paper entitled If We Are So Rich, Why Aren't We Happy? by M. Csikszentmihalyi:

“Thus, the results of culturally and methodologically circumscribed studies need to be taken with more than the usual grain of salt.”

focusing more on the part:

studies need to be taken with more than the usual grain of salt

What does this idiom or phrase means?

Best Answer

The writer is altering the well-known idiom take something with a grain of salt to get a new meaning. (I believe this is an example of metalepsis). Here’s a relevant entry for take something with a grain of salt:

take (something) with a grain of salt
To consider or evaluate something, such as a statement, with the understanding that it may not be completely true or accurate, typically due to the unreliability of the source.

I heard that you can get a free movie ticket if you wear red, but Kevin told me that, so I'm going to take it with a grain of salt.

Take whatever that paper publishes with a grain of salt—it's really a tabloid.
(TFD)

In this case, by analogy, if a grain of salt represents a certain level of skepticism, then more than the usual grain of salt suggests that we should be more skeptical than usual.

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