You can keep with trusting the 'brand name' with your life all you want.
Me, I'm going to actually TEST defense loads in my particular guns and use the one that shoots with the best accuracy with no failures to feed or eject.
As for research, it depends on what you are looking for. I'm willing to bet that Federal's Hydra-Shok and Winchester's Silvertip lines of ammunition have been involved in far more actual shootings than Hornady's new attempt to get into the self defense market. If you do your research on what is proven and has been tested in the field, either one of those will prove superior to the Hornady.
There are constant updates to various reports and studies of most effective engineered defense rounds and eventually it comes down to a choice based on personal preference; do I use the rounds that the local LEO's are using? Do I use what I know feeds well in my particular handgun? Etc.
The ideal handgun, IMHO, is one that will eat ANYTHING and keep on going. My Glocks and my Sigs (in particular my P239) seem to eat everything and anything and have NEVER failed to feed nor to fire. I take good care of them all, of course.
Of the many reports and studies available, there are indeed field studies based on many factors including post-mortems and reliability. Again, personally, I want a round that is preferably proven to some extent (post mortems, incident reports) and reliable from PERSONAL experience and in MY guns. I have had handguns purported to be the most reliable on the market (just my personal experience) and have had at least a couple that were jamomatics. I am still sitting with one as I refuse to sell it until it is 100%. The reason I want it to be MY gun that proves reliability? I have had several Berettas of the 92 series including the M9A1 and that M9A1 was a jamomatic.... had it fixed up and sold it. For whatever reason, wound up with another M9A1 and it was perfectly reliable. My other Berettas are generally reliable but my Glocks and Sigs have been 100% reliable through many thousands of rounds fired of all types of ammuntition. My 1911's have been a mixed bag - the cheapest have been some of the most reliable. The most expensive have been some of the least reliable. Varied from gun to gun and in fact I have two Kimber models that I own two each of and interestingly each of the two perform with different reliablity. I found that going to ProTac magazines made a difference and that external extractors were performing superior, despite reports to the contrary. The point is you need to have confidence in both the round you are using being able to do its work and the gun you are using being able to handle the round you are using with total reliability.
I know, based on a vast array of reports, that the HydraShocks and Gold Dots will do their jobs as stated for the most part and that is what I presently use for defense rounds. They have the added advantage of being used by a wide array of LE Departments. One needs to be aware of the fact that should one be in a lethal force encounter, deadly or otherwise, that one will be faced with CRIMINAL law as well as CIVIL law in court and that variables in one's defense/offense are going to include the quality of representation (hire the best you can possibly afford specializing in the area) and the firearm and ammunition that one was using at the time ("Your honour... the defendant was using a .50 cal handgun loaded with homemade hollowpoints... a more bloodthirsty creature does not roam the face of this Earth").
So, I try to stick with what LE uses and hopefully what is used to best effect.... keeping in mind that better engineered rounds are coming out as of late as feedback increases and technology improves.
The "best personal defense load" is the one that is going to get the job done, right? And it depends on a variety of factors as to what that load is going to be asides from historical performance. As a for instance... is your adversary likely to be so sophisticated as to be wearing light body armour? Or heavy body armour? Is your adversary likely to be inside a car, behind glass or sheet metal - or out in the open? Is your adversary accompanied by others? (Need fast recovery from recoil, etc.) Are you able to handle a .50 calibre handgun? Or do you need to be shooting 9mm. or even less in order to hang on to that handgun? Are you carrying concealed or in a duty holster or open or in a rifle rack in the bedroom? And so on. Many factors to be taken into consideration before even considering what the best personal defense load is for your particular situation. And only AFTER taking all of these things into consideration can you make an educated guess - because that is exactly what it is going to be. An educated guess.
One thing for sure. I would be doing a whole lot of personal research before choosing. I am actually looking at dumping my Glock 9mm's and .45ACP's in favour of .40/.357 after much research for a variety of reasons which will become apparent as you do your own research. One of MY reasons is simply to reduce my choices of handguns... right now I take with me when travelling both 9mm and .45ACP so that I can carry what I perceive to be the best load for any given circumstance (i.e. the .45 is somewhat heavier than the 9mm and has a lot more kick to it).
This is one of those never-ending stories needless to say but I love to see what everyone is using and occasionally come across a round that gets my curiousity up. The round that is claimed to be a "one shot stop" round (the only one-shot stop round I have seen claimed that I believed was a round from a Bradley cannon that vapourized a guy standing with an RPG; now THAT was a one shot stop and totally amazing at that).
So, in the end, there are many factors to consider and likely there is not one "best personal defense load" but being educated and informed as to what is available is certainly a good thing. BTW, I would never use a home load for personal defense.