collecting published results in medicine, psychology, epidemiology & economics journals gives an unbiased idea of the sizes of the effects they report
which is wrong at least twice over (publication bias and correlation-causation confusion) but is, I suspect, an implicit assumption made by lots of people who only made it to the first stage of traditional rationality (and reason along the lines of “normal people are full of crap, scientists are smarter and do SCIENCE!, so all I need to do to be correct is regurgitate what I find in scientific journals”).
I’d generalize that to something like X which is wrong at least twice over
Then don’t.
I point is more that if you only have theory and no empiric evidence, then it’s likely that you are wrong. That doesn’t mean that having a bit of empiric evidence automatically means that you are right.
I also would put more emphasis on having empiric feedback loops than at scientific publications. Publications are just one way of feedback. There a lot to be learned about psychology by really paying attention on other people with whom you interact.
If I interact with a person who has a phobia of spider and solve the issue and afterwards put a spider on his arm and the person doesn’t freak out, I have my empiric feedback. I don’t need a paper to tell me that the person doesn’t have a phobia anymore.
I point is more that if you only have theory and no empiric evidence, then it’s likely that you are wrong. That doesn’t mean that having a bit of empiric evidence automatically means that you are right.
Yes, I agree. To clarify, I was neither condoning the belief in my bullet point, nor accusing you of believing it. I just wanted to tip my hat to you for inspiring my example with yours.
I’d generalize that to something like
collecting published results in medicine, psychology, epidemiology & economics journals gives an unbiased idea of the sizes of the effects they report
which is wrong at least twice over (publication bias and correlation-causation confusion) but is, I suspect, an implicit assumption made by lots of people who only made it to the first stage of traditional rationality (and reason along the lines of “normal people are full of crap, scientists are smarter and do SCIENCE!, so all I need to do to be correct is regurgitate what I find in scientific journals”).
Then don’t.
I point is more that if you only have theory and no empiric evidence, then it’s likely that you are wrong. That doesn’t mean that having a bit of empiric evidence automatically means that you are right.
I also would put more emphasis on having empiric feedback loops than at scientific publications. Publications are just one way of feedback. There a lot to be learned about psychology by really paying attention on other people with whom you interact.
If I interact with a person who has a phobia of spider and solve the issue and afterwards put a spider on his arm and the person doesn’t freak out, I have my empiric feedback. I don’t need a paper to tell me that the person doesn’t have a phobia anymore.
Yes, I agree. To clarify, I was neither condoning the belief in my bullet point, nor accusing you of believing it. I just wanted to tip my hat to you for inspiring my example with yours.
Ah, okay.