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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023

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It is true, however, that social sciences are not well respected among other scientists. But what this experience should tell you is that even the respect they have is probably too high. For instance, it is likely scientists should not try to control for "risk factors" identified only by social science -- in doing so they are likely at best adding noise and at worst controlling out real effects or controlling in false ones.

But what this experience should tell you is that even the respect they have is probably too high.

For more systematic evidence of this claim:

https://fantasticanachronism.com/2020/09/11/whats-wrong-with-social-science-and-how-to-fix-it/#There-Are-No-Journals-With-Strict-Quality-Standards

There are a few areas of social science that have a good sense of how to test causal hypotheses. Almost everything else is actively (though perhaps inadvertently) misleading, and large parts of the academy should probably be defunded entirely.