Audience poll

[derdriu]

So I was reading an article a friend linked to and an interesting question/challenge came out of the discussion. Now the article itself is full of fail for many reasons, the majority of which are eloquently pointed out here. So I'm not going to talk about that. I am, however, going to ask for your opinions, dear friends, on an issue brought up in

Comments

Here I am again, brandishing the Scientific Method

[cupacoffey]

Okay, I lied. I did go and look at the graph and read part of the original paper. I have a tome of effing rants on the matter, but in order to avoid completely hijacking your post as a mouth piece for my pet peeves, I will just say that sloppy application of mathematics appears to be pretty much standard practice in many fields, and this annoys me to no end. It is further both interesting and deeply bothersome to then observe the progression from an experiment that is not entirely dumb, but* too sloppy, un-rigorous and full of unspoken assumptions and possibly an Agenda regarding data collection to really say something as definitively as our society turns to Science to say; to poor graph interpretation skills, wild unsubstantiated claims and just generally piss-poor research on the part of media; to cultural debate among a public that places way more trust than deserved in experts and the media to provide accurate information. It's like a butterfly flaps its wings in so-how-the-hell will-we-substantiate-our-claims, and then THE HOLOCAUST.

*Scratch that; the more I read of this thing, the more I'm inclined to convert your thread into my personal soapbox, so I will stop now, except to say I have many problems with the way social science (if you can call it that) is done and the way it's communicated to the public.

[derdriu]

Yeah. While I did not read the paper (no access without paying $5), I read a lot of commentary on it and saw some of the graphs. It is apparent that they did a very obviously sloppy job at setting up their study or accounting for factors that would cause people to report accurately or inaccurately. For instance, a few brilliant people suggested that more women may be reporting a lower happiness response, not because they are less happy than they were previously, but because one of the ongoing works of feminism is to make it okay for a woman to state how she really feels rather than constantly putting on a happy face.

Also... YES to everything you said. YES.

Re: Here I am again, brandishing the Scientific Method

[ibnfirnas]

Yeah, it's extremely poor "science" they're using, and poor journalism reporting it. It's just a ridiculous agenda-laden hatchet-job of a study.