Comments for Pop Psychology

Comment on Predicting The Future With Faces by Evoman

Evoman — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 01:05:13 +0000

I wonder how young this effect goes? In hunter-gatherer societies girls are usually chosen as wives very young, usually about 14 or younger. We may not approve of these practices in modern societies but we have to accept that it is the natural human mating system. It would be interesting to see if men can “sense” the age girls this young will go through menopause too.

Comment on No Sexism In SCRABBLE by URL

URL — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 18:33:11 +0000

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Comment on Does Diversity Per Se Pay? by BuBBa

BuBBa — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 05:44:21 +0000

Please make a post about the recent Google memo.

Comment on To Meaningfully Talk About Gender by How Conversion Therapy Bans Will Trap Transgender Children – Liberty REDUX

How Conversion Therapy Bans Will Trap Transgender Children – Liberty REDUX — Thu, 11 May 2017 12:11:43 +0000

[...] exist to explain the postmodern mysteries of gender to college kids, nothing about gender identity makes sense. The notion of “brain sex” gets brought up, alongside questionably interpreted science, but [...]

Comment on The Adaptive Significance Of Priming by On The Need To Evolutionize Memory Research | Pop Psychology

On The Need To Evolutionize Memory Research | Pop Psychology — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 17:01:49 +0000

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Comment on More About Race And Police Violence by Peter Gerdes

Peter Gerdes — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 03:30:23 +0000

However, I think the elephant in the room here is properly defining the kind of shooting one is interested in.

The following two claims are totally consistent:

1) Blacks are no more (or even less) likely to be shot by the police once one controls for the level of violence in the area they live etc…

2) Innocent blacks are more likely to be shot by the police than innocent whites even controlling for violence level of their neighborhood.

Why? Because presumably there are many fewer police shootings of innocent people than valid police shootings. Thus, the overall figures (and any variation from the regression…non-linearity of police shootings per crime rate) will hide what is happening to the innocent.

–

Not claiming there is such a different but pointing out how important it is to be clear on what one is talking about.

Comment on More About Race And Police Violence by Peter Gerdes

Peter Gerdes — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 03:19:42 +0000

The hypothesis has always been that blacks are more likely to be unjustly shot because they are more likely to be stereotyped as dangerous and criminal. No one ever claimed that blacks were being shot out of KKK style anti-black animus. As such one would actually expect black officers to be just as vulnerable (true one might hope they would have non-crime interactions with black family/friends that would apply corrective force but those family/friends will likely be seen in very different contexts and with different features than the criminals they profile).

As for body cameras it is critical to state what kind of analysis says they have no effect. If all you mean is that departments that issue cameras don’t see statistical differences in racial shooting patters this tells us almost nothing. First, body cameras are often turned off or erased after the fact in dubious circumstances. Secondly, the body cameras should only affect “bad” shootings…more in second comment.

Comment on When It’s Not About Race Per Se by More About Race And Police Violence | Pop Psychology

More About Race And Police Violence | Pop Psychology — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 23:45:52 +0000

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Comment on What Might Research Ethics Teach Us About Effect Size? by Peter Gerdes

Peter Gerdes — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 17:15:29 +0000

Yes, I know that is not how ERB’s work but philosophers have long raised issues with the principles they apply.

I think it’s fairly accurate to say that ERBs (and similar concerns) aren’t actually trying to reach the ethically correct answer (that’s hard and people can disagree) but the answer that minimizes criticism. So as long as a research program would strike some people as ethically problematic they don’t examine the issue further to see if they are right

Comment on What Might Research Ethics Teach Us About Effect Size? by Peter Gerdes

Peter Gerdes — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 17:11:43 +0000

Actually, it seems quite clear that even the Chile study would be ethical.

After all if something is widely believed to be safe and consumed frequently by large numbers then the harm from not documenting it to be unsafe is huge. The utility calculations are clear. It’s immoral not to do studies like this.

Now when the treatment isn’t in use and widely believed to be safe in the same population in which the study is being done things get a little more complicated. A study which feeds US college students a food common in Africa and assumed to be safe but not eaten in the US might, if it turns out to be harmful, undermine American’s belief in the safety of research studies and make them less likely to participate.

However, as long as the treatment is commonly used in the population from which subjects are drawn no one will feel ill used if the study demonstrates the treatment is harmful. Just the opposite, they will be thankful that they now know and they and their loved ones can avoid it from this point on. To be extra safe just tell the subjects you believe it to be dangerous but it isn’t yet proven and it is commonly consumed.