A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “study critique”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott Alexander critiques a study on fathers' influence on sons' obesity, highlighting statistical flaws and misleading publicity, while exploring the broader challenge of identifying genuine parental effects.
Scott reviews 'Unlearn Your Pain', finding its psychosomatic theory of chronic pain intriguing but overstated, while acknowledging the book's techniques may still be helpful via placebo effects.
Scott shares various interesting links and findings, including studies on education and IQ, brain simulation challenges, obesity surgery outcomes, and various cultural curiosities.
Scott Alexander examines three conflicting articles on poverty and attempts to reconcile their findings, ultimately becoming more optimistic about alleviating extreme poverty through money transfers.
Scott examines new research on ketamine's antidepressant effects and its implications for understanding depression and evaluating psychiatric literature.
A links post collecting interesting stories from around the web, including scientific studies, historical oddities, media criticism, and current events, with Scott's commentary and analysis.
Scott Alexander reviews research on teacher effectiveness, examining Value-Added Modeling (VAM) and its criticisms, while expressing uncertainty about claimed long-term impacts on adult earnings.
A collection of interesting links and studies on various topics, from bad statistics and media coverage to technological progress and scientific discoveries, with commentary from Scott Alexander.
A links roundup examining various scientific studies, social developments, and historical findings, with a particular focus on recent research about confounding variables and replication issues in science.
Scott Alexander cautions against drawing strong conclusions from regional scatterplots, demonstrating how apparent correlations can be artifacts of regional clustering rather than true relationships.
A Links post presenting various interesting news and studies from different fields, with brief commentary on each item.
A links roundup post covering recent developments in science, medicine, psychology and politics, with particular focus on research replication issues and the 2016 election season.
Scott Alexander criticizes the idea that prisons have replaced mental hospitals, arguing for better community and forensic mental health care instead of long-term institutionalization.
A collection of interesting links and brief commentary spanning topics from scientific research to cultural phenomena, including updates on various studies challenging previous beliefs.
Scott Alexander critiques a study claiming gender bias in GitHub, pointing out methodological flaws and media misrepresentation of its non-peer-reviewed findings.
Scott shares diverse links ranging from optical illusions and Bitcoin drama to educational research and medical controversies, with commentary on methodology and social implications.
The post explores the complex relationship between smoking and schizophrenia, critiquing conflicting studies and cautioning against hasty conclusions about nicotine's effects on schizophrenia risk.
Scott Alexander offers follow-up insights on his guns and states analysis, addressing cultural factors, rape correlations, replication issues, and the complexity of gun control debates.
Scott Alexander examines the relationship between gun ownership and homicide rates, finding a likely causal link but noting it's not the main factor in the US's high murder rate.
A curated collection of interesting links covering academic debates, cultural issues, economics, and scientific discoveries from around the web.
Scott shares and comments on various links covering topics like startups, science, academia, social issues and charitable giving, with a focus on rationalist and effective altruist causes.
Scott Alexander reviews 'Hive Mind' by Garett Jones, which argues that national IQ matters more for economic success than individual IQ, while raising several criticisms of the book's methodology and conclusions.
A collection of interesting links covering recent research, controversies, and developments across various fields including science, economics, politics and sociology, with Scott's brief commentary on each.
Scott reviews evidence on whether college improves critical thinking, finding modest short-term gains but questioning their long-term persistence.
A curated collection of interesting links covering science, history, politics and culture, with brief commentary from Scott Alexander on each item.