anyway.
A Penny for Your Thoughts



2010-11-09 : Psi Funny
This is absolutely hilarious:
Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect by Daryl J. Bem, Cornell University (pdf link).

Here's some reportage of it: at io9 (whereat I learned of it), at H+, at Psychology Today.

I don't feel the need to register my skepticism-or-faith, and I hope you don't either. It's not my job to decide what must be true and what must not be true! If there's one thing about science that I'm pretty sure of, it's that well-designed studies are better qualified than my personal opinions and judgments to determine the truth of a matter.

Meanwhile, true or not, his paper is layered through with brilliant jokes. He had me laughing out loud. Are all psych papers this funny?

1. On 2010-11-09, Simon R wrote:


"Apparently there have been hundreds of requests for replication packages so other scientists can re-test Bem's experiments and see if the results come back the same."

Love science.

Marginalia


2. On 2010-11-09, Ben Lehman wrote:


The comments thread is a wonderful, wonderful barrel of schadenfreude.

Yes, papers are often that funny. I mean, scientists have to keep from getting bored, right?

Marginalia


3. On 2010-11-10, SDLahr wrote:


So... if i understand these results correctly... he's saying people *are* psychic - but only when it comes to sex?

Right up the AW alley, eh? ;)

Marginalia



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