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This actually strikes me as an example of a political decision creating a stickiness to academic formal standards (as others point out this has become a policy
by advael 3y ago
This actually strikes me as an example of a political decision creating a stickiness to academic formal standards (as others point out this has become a policy for various organizations' approval of findings). Since the "replication crisis" that happened in the last decade, a lot of people's explanations for this have centered around the use of the fisherian significance test and how gameable it can be, as well as pressures toward publishing positive results. I think there's some merit to solutions involving changing those standards and a lot of STEM people have advocated for them. However, things like drug trials have politically-determined standards that need to be upheld, and some of those standards have become well-known by the general public, so they can't really be bugfixed quickly
- jvans 3y agoThere is no single or set of standards that can prevent you from having to think critically about a result. Rarely are results so overwhelmingly positive that it's obvious what the result means. In those cases it doesn't matter what method you use anyway. The rest of the time, you should use many methods, be wary of their assumptions and think very hard about what the data is telling you. Realize that you are biased in favor of a positive result and play devil's advocate with yourself. This is very very hard work, and most people don't want to do it, especially when their careers improve when they look the other way
- advael 3y agoI view this as obvious but I guess that doesn't go without saying. The two cultures I've characterized actually share a commonly held strong belief that there exist metrics or heuristics that can replace the need for fluid critical thinking. Obviously it's not everyone in either culture who thinks this way, but it's a dangerous form of automation for both