3 ms·

Side note: this is the first time I've heard Simpson's paradox explained intuitively.

• thaumasiotes 12y ago
  When I read the wikipedia page it had a pretty clear real-life example (inspection reveals: still there!) -- UC Berkeley was sued for accepting male grad students at a higher rate than female grad students. On examination, most departments at Berkeley admitted females at a higher rate than they admitted males, but males preferentially applied to easier departments.
  • erikpukinskis 12y ago
    As another side note: This still constitutes bias if you turn the attribution around. Rather than "men choose easier-to-get-into programs", you could say the university underfunds the areas of study that women are more excited about.
    • klipt 12y ago
      Even assuming there's some inherent difference in what women want to study (as opposed to cultural differences which could ultimately be removed) - funding isn't always the choice of the university. You can't take a DARPA grant to research robots and then spend it on interpretive dance lessons.
      • tgpc 12y ago
        interpretive dance for robots? (I'd really like to see that...)
      • erikpukinskis 12y ago
        That's societal bias then. And the university is accomplice to it.