Sunday, October 27, 2019

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Another study about so-called implicit bias bites the dust:
One of the best-known scientific studies to posit that implicit bias—the idea that all people are unconsciously racist, sexist, etc.—can be counteracted via strategic effort is taking a well-deserved beating. It now appears that the findings were significantly overstated...

My point is that the in an area of research fraught with replicability problems, the orchestra study was supposed to be one of the good ones.

Well, so much for that. In May, Columbia University statistician Andrew Gelman took a deep dive into the study. He described them as "not very impressive at all," and had great difficulty trying to locate the 50 percent statistic within the modest findings...

Blind interviews and auditions may be preferable for other reasons. They may even reduce implicit bias in some situations. But as is so often the case, the sweeping claims of social scientists do not seem to survive scrutiny.
Lefties and their fake "science".

2 comments:

Pseudotsuga said...

"One of the best-known scientific studies to posit that implicit bias—the idea that all people are unconsciously racist, sexist, etc.—can be counteracted via strategic effort is taking a well-deserved beating."

Uhoh -- now all those people who run workshops on white privilege and implicit bias are going to be out of a job!
Of course, not really, but that's what should happen.

ProfessorWit said...

Great site! I'm looking for an online video of students saying "this is my flag." Have you seen it? I remember it included some first responders however I can't find it again. Thanks,