Andrew Gelman — Gaydar and the fallacy of objective measurement

Stripping a phemenon of its social context, normalizing a base rate to 50%, and seeking an on-off decision: all of these can give the feel of scientific objectivity—but the very steps taken to ensure objectivity can remove social context and relevance.

Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
Gaydar and the fallacy of objective measurement
Andrew Gelman | Professor of Statistics and Political Science and Director of the Applied Statistics Center, Columbia University

Lars P. Syll — Randomization — a philosophical device gone astray

When giving courses in the philosophy of science yours truly has often had David Papineau’s book Philosophical Devices (OUP 2012) on the reading list. Overall it is a good introduction to many of the instruments used when performing methodological and science theoretical analyses of economic and other social sciences issues.

Unfortunately, the book has also fallen prey to the randomization hype that scourges sciences nowadays....

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Randomization — a philosophical device gone astray
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University