Are you talking about the Early Childhood longitudinal study? I could not find anything about Levitt actually having contributed to this study, I only found evidence of him talking about this study, either on NPR or in his book.
My personal education research advisor, _MWife_, thought the conclusions highly dubious, because she believes that the data is not suited for this approach. She thinks that she would be hard-pressed to come up with a study design that could tease out the differences that Levitt is trying to make here.
_MWife_'s interpretation suggestion is that the study shows that a statistically significant portion of the parents are not honest about what they do with their children. That's why the actions appear to make no difference. However, there are material indicators that give the researchers insight into the attitudes the parents display when the researchers leave the house
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Hard to believe that the parents out and out lied about how much TV their kids watched in an entirely randomized fashion, or just all tended to give the same answer, regardless of the truth. Even if they mostly lied about this, I would imagine they would tend to at least state that their kids watched somewhat more TV if they did, in fact, watch more TV. If you see what I mean
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that's now what I was saying. What I was saying (or more precisely, what _MWife_ was suggesting, is that in these types of studies, people "know" that there is a socially expected answer. Some people dont care and give the answer they think anyway; some people are already doing what they think is the socially excepted thing and so tell the truth. But some people think that they are "socially under-performing": They think it is expected of them that their kids watch less TV; they suspect that they should be reading more with their children. So they lie. Because an interview of this type is a social occasion, and so people will answer socially, not rationally.
The fact that the researchers are coming into these people's houses is only making the matter worse. The people are going to feel even more pressured to present an acceptable front.
_MWife_'s suspicion is that when asked about the activity, enough people say what they think society wants them to say rather what they do; which is why the statements about the activities muddle up the data and
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I'm all over the last sentence. I dont' watch live TV; I have a PVR that skips ads. And I'll probably soon replace that with a MythTV box that does that better.
I love how much control I have over TV. My kids basically don't watch ads, and only watch the shows we choose for them. And we can do that whenever is convenient. The TV does not rule my life at all; I watch the shows I want when I choose to.
This means that I'm in no hurry to sign up for HDTV. I'll probably get a HDTV before long and use its higher definition for a better MythTV interface, for watching movies and video games. I'm in no hurry to get a better picture but be forced to watch ads.
Aside: the best show since The Sopranos is Heroes. I hope you're watching it!
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My personal education research advisor, _MWife_, thought the conclusions highly dubious, because she believes that the data is not suited for this approach. She thinks that she would be hard-pressed to come up with a study design that could tease out the differences that Levitt is trying to make here.
_MWife_'s interpretation suggestion is that the study shows that a statistically significant portion of the parents are not honest about what they do with their children. That's why the actions appear to make no difference. However, there are material indicators that give the researchers insight into the attitudes the parents display when the researchers leave the house ( ... )
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The fact that the researchers are coming into these people's houses is only making the matter worse. The people are going to feel even more pressured to present an acceptable front.
_MWife_'s suspicion is that when asked about the activity, enough people say what they think society wants them to say rather what they do; which is why the statements about the activities muddle up the data and ( ... )
Reply
I love how much control I have over TV. My kids basically don't watch ads, and only watch the shows we choose for them. And we can do that whenever is convenient. The TV does not rule my life at all; I watch the shows I want when I choose to.
This means that I'm in no hurry to sign up for HDTV. I'll probably get a HDTV before long and use its higher definition for a better MythTV interface, for watching movies and video games. I'm in no hurry to get a better picture but be forced to watch ads.
Aside: the best show since The Sopranos is Heroes. I hope you're watching it!
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