IRBs need to be checked too - these are now being used as censorship apparatuses. They went from “you can’t medically experiment on people” to “you cannot ask that question on a survey because the responses might be socially stigmatizing.”

- WTF are IRBs? As an Irish person it immediately suggests the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Or something ( Read more... )

Does astrology work? We tested the ability of 152 astrologers to see if they could demonstrate genuine astrological skill ( Read more... )

In what ways do higher I.Q. people really differ from others, and what's merely a misconception about having a higher I.Q.?

Recently, I asked on social media, "What negative/bad traits do you think correlate with having a higher I.Q.?" I was fascinated that I got such a large number of responses and that many of those responses are not actually ( Read more... )

One of the few real skills taught in law school is research. It's simple, but still, there's no shame in not knowing - you can't know until you're taught! I paid way too much to learn this, but I want to give you the quick version right now ( Read more... )

I've only had a few occasions to look at surveys that academics send me before they run, but almost all have really glaring errors in the survey design that will, in my opinion, lead to really misleading results. I hope I've just gotten an unusually bad sample and it's not all like this ( Read more... )

С детства мы слышим, как открытие (точнее, многократное переоткрытие в разных эпохах) перспективы перевернуло живопись, и всегда непонятно, как же так, как могли великие художники не знать то, что знает любой советский дошкольник. Перспектива - сложное понятие, совершенно неочевидное без специального целенаправленного изучения. Происходит это из-за ( Read more... )

The worst academic studies are written by people who are trying to do an academic study. The best studies are made by people who are genuinely trying to understand the world. Documenting the process and publishing it should be a byproduct of the search for understanding.

Imagine you're in a big room with a bunch of people and not enough places to sit. You don't know carpentry, you've never tried it before, but you're like well, people need to sit, and it can't be *that* hard to put together the basics of a chair ( Read more... )

Escort monthly income by BMI, from my escort survey I've had open for a while. Sample size is still kinda low, like n=~30 per bin, and this is sampling escorts online enough to take my survey, but there still looks like a trend I'd expect. Interesting to see the degree of impact ( Read more... )

Вышло интересное исследование американских экономистов. При анализе данных с 1996 по 2018 годы получилось, что каждый шаг по легализации каннабиса в том или ином штате приводил в среднем к падению капитализации американского фармсектора в целом на 10 миллиардов долларов (и это только публичные компании, торгуемые на фондовом рынке). Каждое такое ( Read more... )