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> A study shows a genetic basis for a difference - on average across the whole population - where blue people are 10% less intelligent and 10% more violent. >
by wtbob 10y ago
> A study shows a genetic basis for a difference - on average across the whole population - where blue people are 10% less intelligent and 10% more violent.
> Are you justified in preferring to hire green people? No.
Why the heck wouldn't you be justified in preferring to hire people who are, on average, more intelligent and less violent?
> Are you justified in having greens-only policies? Of course not, that's not how averages work.
I agree — in the scenario, any individual blue might be preferable to the great mass of greens.
> Is there any basis for any kind of segregation? Any basis for any color-based policies? No … It's precisely because there's almost no practical use for studies like these
There's no practical use that you care to put into practice. What you're arguing for is categories of 'forbidden knowledge': stuff that everyone agrees to ignore, because its truth is too discomforting. That seems a bit childish to me: one of the hallmarks of maturity is coming to terms with uncomfortable knowledge.
Besides, here's one practical use for such a study: in your example, if blues were a much higher proportion of the prison population than they are of society at large, knowing that they are less intelligent and more violent on average is information which can help one determine if that is fair or not.
- peteretep 10y ago> Why the heck wouldn't you be > justified in preferring to > hire people who are, on > average, more intelligent > and less violent? Because that knowledge tells you absolutely nothing about any given individual.
- wtbob 10y ago> Because that knowledge tells you absolutely nothing about any given individual. You can't know the heart of any man: all you can do is make predictions about how he will behave under various circumstances, based on the observations you have made of his behaviour so far. To ignore an observation with strong statistical power because you don't like it is simply unscientific.
- peteretep 10y ago> based on the observations > you have made of his > behaviour so far That's what interviews and resumes are for. I would be interested to know how you would practically hire for race while not being hit by the halo effect for one race on one hand, and not missing strong candidates through racism on the other.
- peteretep 10y ago> What you're arguing for is > categories of 'forbidden > knowledge' No, I'm expressly calling attempting to make useful decisions on individuals based on small differences in wider populations illogical and non-rational. It would not be difficult to model this mathematically.