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Their findings contradict research trends over the past 20 years, which suggested that people with strong religious beliefs naturally think less analytically and more intuitively, supporting broad stereotypes that religious people think irrationally and that people are born believers.

I found the sentence in Inverse Science. My question is: is it right to say 'Their findings contradict research trends over the past 20 years' instead of 'Their findings have contradicted research trends over the past 20 years' as so far I know past perfect comes with over+time?

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    No, Present Perfect isn't okay here. They still contradict right? It's true at the moment of speaking.
    – SovereignSun
    Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 6:37
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    Then,should it be-present perfect continuous as it indicates something happening for a long time?
    – Abdul Kaium Tanvir
    Commented Nov 10, 2017 at 13:04

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Present tense seems right on the money here. "Past perfect" would be "had contradicted," so what you're asking about is "present perfect," not past perfect. I would consider using present perfect in the next verb, "which suggested," since the implication of "which suggested" is that the suggestion may be considered false now. Often, present perfect is an apt replacement for a still-valid-result of a past-tense verb.

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