Why Academic “Studies” Don’t Impress Me

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One of the things that really irked me about graduate school was how subjective almost all of the academic “studies” that we read really were. Sure, I complained about this when I was a new student at the graduate school, but it got me no where. However, I clearly remember the day when I was sitting in a stats class and the professor (a committed far-left thinker) showed us how to manipulate the statistics program to pump out numbers that answered the research question.

Almost immediately I shot my hand in the air and said, “WHOA! That’s not right! This is intellectually inaccurate if you falsify the numbers!” The professor, to his great credit, said that there was no other way to answer the research question than to manipulate the code in a manner such that your question was answered. I came back with, “But if the raw numbers pump out a statistic that disproves your initial question, then isn’t THAT the answer? That you have to accept the null hypothesis and that your research hypothesis cannot be proven?”

At this point, those of you who understand that stuff about null hypotheses are smiling remembering your own statistics classes.

The professor returned with an argument that if the basis of the research is to find an answer to the question, then you need to find the answer to the question. Some of the political extremist students in the class began to agree with him at this point, though there were a great number of students who just looked really confused at his answers.

Let me note that I really liked that Professor’s class. He was a funny, intelligent guy who knew a great deal about the statistics field. Yet, the core of his argument has always sat ill with me because it IS intellectually false. If the answer to a question is “No, you’re wrong,” then that’s the answer! And I bring all of this up because of an article published by one of Bill O’Reilly’s editors on the Los Angeles Times website. Specifically, I am referring to this bit of the article:

Brooks also failed to tell Times readers that the researchers admit they had to make several changes to their “coding instrument” because the first attempts generated “unacceptably low scores.” That’s code for: they tried and tried until the results fit the preconceived notion of name-calling on the Factor.

I’ve seen this before! THIS is what the vast majority of Americans need to know! Folks, when you see these “studies” or these “scientific opinion polls” you’re being duped! The authors of these studies and polls can make the numbers say whatever they want. A great case in point is this O’Reilly article. Now, from my standpoint, I don’t care whether O’Reilly calls people names or whether he is all nice and dandy. It’s the point that his editor brings up that is way undercovered in American media.

The next time you hear that so and so is “up” x percentage points in the opinion polls, do yourself a favor and actually download the poll. Look at the margin of error (another opinion-based number). In fact, do some research on WHO is asked to participate in these polls. What you might find is interesting…did you know that ONLY people who have landline telephones are permitted, by law, to participate in these polls? Did you know that most, if not all, of the major media polls are conducted this way?

How about the fact that most people who still use landline phones are getting up there in years and are committed Democrats born of the 1960’s cultural revolution era? I’ve never, not even once, been asked to partake in one of these polls. I use a cell phone only.

Folks, if this doesn’t make you stop and think about what the media pumps out at you on a daily basis then nothing will.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2007 at 12:16 am and is filed under College & Fraternity Life, Idiots, Morons, & Fools, United States Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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