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> Liberals lecture, conservatives communicate: Analyzing complexity and ideology in 381,609 political speeches At what point does it become irresponsible to pu

> Liberals lecture, conservatives communicate: Analyzing complexity and ideology in 381,609 political speeches At what point does it become irresponsible to put out studies with this kind of title? All this does is create two warring factions - one side that is bolstered by the claims and feels they are superior and the other side that feels attacked and loses some faith in the instition of studies like this. Furthermore these are rarely ever conclusive. They take a topic like understanding and interpreting linguistics (an already incredibly difficult field of study) and boil it down to a dinner table conversation quip. But the damage is done. This click bait will be freely shared on social media and be consumed by unwitting participants.

jfengel 7y ago
So much of popular science reporting is abysmal that I have to flip it around: assume that the study is going to be mis-reported and just accept it as a given. I don't want to let that certainty factor into the choice of what research is done. Politics is hard to study, but it's important. If the results are valid, people will apply them, and that has a direct effect on people's lives. The data may be messy and the theory doubtful, but if there's any measure of merit to it, it can gain a small advantage that can be the critical difference. And hopefully, each subsequent study builds evidence for a paradigm shift that makes the theory less dubious over time.