When scientists discuss papers: ”I don’t think this inference is entirely reasonable. If you’re using several non-independent variables you’re liable to accumulate more error than your model accounts for.” When scientists discuss grants: ”A guy who worked at the NSF once told me if we light a candle inside this jackal skull, the funders will smile upon our hopes.” ″I’ll get the altar!”
(1) Do people act more rationally when their interests are more directly concerned?
(2) Are scientists’ interests more directly concerned with winning grants than with making correct scientific inferences?
If the answer to both is “yes,” then I think we should raise our confidence in jackal rituals relative to the current methodologies of statistical inference.
Fortunately for jackals, there’s an unjustified independence assumption here. Other stuff I’ve read strongly suggests that the outcomes of published research are strongly influenced by the expectations of the researchers about future grant money.
(1) Do people act more rationally when their interests are more directly concerned?
Hell, no. Religion (especially the more commandment-heavy ones like Islam and Orthodox Judaism) being the best example, with interpersonal relationships running a close second.
The idea of that strip, as I understand it, is that scientists pretty much only act rationally inside the lab.
~ Zach Weiner, SMBC #2559
(1) Do people act more rationally when their interests are more directly concerned? (2) Are scientists’ interests more directly concerned with winning grants than with making correct scientific inferences?
If the answer to both is “yes,” then I think we should raise our confidence in jackal rituals relative to the current methodologies of statistical inference.
Fortunately for jackals, there’s an unjustified independence assumption here. Other stuff I’ve read strongly suggests that the outcomes of published research are strongly influenced by the expectations of the researchers about future grant money.
Hell, no. Religion (especially the more commandment-heavy ones like Islam and Orthodox Judaism) being the best example, with interpersonal relationships running a close second.
The idea of that strip, as I understand it, is that scientists pretty much only act rationally inside the lab.
I think you’re reading into a joke much too strongly.