BEWARE THE MAN OF ONE STUDY
December 14, 2014 12:00 PM   Subscribe

In two brilliant posts, Scott Alexander explores the relationship between the peer reviewed papers and the political argument. In Beware of the One Man Study he looks at how alternative medicine proponents and doctors are fed information and misinterpretations to suit their existing opinions, even though that information is serious academic study produced with the best of intentions. And in "Debunked and Well-Refuted, I was insufficiently pessimistic" at how recent "debates" about rape in US colleges and debates on the minimum wage fall prey to the same kind of confirmation biases in political arguments online.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory (2 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Getting flagged heavily since it appears to be a long way around trying to debunk campus rape statistics, better as a comment in the existing thread on the UVA case. -- mathowie



 
Beware of activists bearing statistics.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 12:15 PM on December 14, 2014


Beware status-quo beneficiaries preaching aloof centrism.
posted by fleacircus at 12:31 PM on December 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


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