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Given that the placebo effect is a well-documented meta-effect, to what degree can we suggest that any particular weak psychological effect is real and not plac

Given that the placebo effect is a well-documented meta-effect, to what degree can we suggest that any particular weak psychological effect is real and not placebo? This is not rhetorical; to what degree do you believe that psychology even exists as a reasonable experimental science? The main lesson of these meta-analyses and examinations of statistics is that we cannot trust our minds to be honest. Your failure to be cynical in the face of ever-mounting evidence is a clear sign that you are failing to show the skepticism demanded of sincere scientists. From [0] linked upthread: > This means, presumably after about Jan 1st 2025 utilizing willpower will increase the available resources to utilize in willpower tasks. This in turn will require us to hold back from utilizing our willpower in order to prevent exponential amplification in a loop… However, holding back from utilizing willpower itself requires willpower, leading to actually super-exponential ego growth. Shortly after midnight Jan 1 2025 all humans will vanish in a blinding flash of pure ego. Clearly something is wrong here; clearly ego depletion, as described by the literature of psychology, does not exist. (Or I am about to write a lot of code in the next few years!) The thread-starter you are criticizing was obliquely referring to several well-known failures of the psychologist community: power poses [1], priming [2], and more beliefs about food than you knew you ever held [3]. As somebody elsewhere says, the point is indeed that perhaps it's all rubbish. Do you have a coherent reason to believe, or is it something taken on faith? [0] https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/11/19/break-out-the-marshmallows-friends-ego-depletion-is-due-to-change-sign/ https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/11/19/break-out-... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_posing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_posing [2] https://www.nature.com/news/nobel-laureate-challenges-psychologists-to-clean-up-their-act-1.11535 https://www.nature.com/news/nobel-laureate-challenges-psycho... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wansink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wansink

dang 7y ago
My comment was not about psychology studies. It was about bad posts to Hacker News.
- lidHanteyk 7y ago
  Then I feel that you're engaging in a double standard. The thread-starter and I both have a critique of the social construction of psychology, and your response is that the direction of the critique is "shallow" and "extra cynical". However, only the thread-starter and I have given anything of substance, and y'all have not really refuted any of it. It's disappointing when a site is supposed to promote curiosity and yet its moderators are not only uninformed but actively incurious. You have a pattern of policing folks' tones under the auspices of poor content, but it doesn't hold up well when you post two-sentence dismissals to hundreds of words worth of original, sincere, considered thought. It makes you come across as lacking in empathy and insight. This ain't the first time you've shown this attitude, for what it's worth. I am picking up on a pattern.

dang 7y ago

My comment was not about psychology studies. It was about bad posts to Hacker News.

lidHanteyk 7y ago
Then I feel that you're engaging in a double standard. The thread-starter and I both have a critique of the social construction of psychology, and your response is that the direction of the critique is "shallow" and "extra cynical". However, only the thread-starter and I have given anything of substance, and y'all have not really refuted any of it. It's disappointing when a site is supposed to promote curiosity and yet its moderators are not only uninformed but actively incurious. You have a pattern of policing folks' tones under the auspices of poor content, but it doesn't hold up well when you post two-sentence dismissals to hundreds of words worth of original, sincere, considered thought. It makes you come across as lacking in empathy and insight. This ain't the first time you've shown this attitude, for what it's worth. I am picking up on a pattern.