Skip to primary content

Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

Main menu

  • Home
  • Authors
  • Blogs We Read
  • Sponsors

Post navigation

Models for cumulative probabilities Difficulties in communication with non-Bayesians

The story of Track and Trig, or blue parents who name with red values

Posted on September 26, 2008 12:53 PM by Andrew

Laura Wattenberg writes, “in baby naming as in so many parts of life, style, not values, is the guiding light.”

This entry was posted in Sociology by Andrew. Bookmark the permalink.
  • Art
  • Bayesian Statistics
  • Causal Inference
  • Decision Analysis
  • Economics
  • Jobs
  • Literature
  • Miscellaneous Science
  • Miscellaneous Statistics
  • Multilevel Modeling
  • Papers
  • Political Science
  • Public Health
  • Sociology
  • Sports
  • Stan
  • Statistical computing
  • Statistical graphics
  • Teaching
  • Zombies
  1. Nick Adams on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 6:31 PM

    I agree that UpToDate is the best but it is not entirely reliable. Also it is generally biased toward over-investigating…

  2. Carrie on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 4:05 PM

    For a specific medial research question, a systematic review of the existing literature with or without a meta-analysis synthesizing the…

  3. Joshua on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 9, 2023 2:08 PM

    Rahul - > # replace “bad” with some version of noisy, biased, inaccurate, sparse etc. With that, I'm fine. That…

  4. Dale Lehman on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 9, 2023 1:45 PM

    Rahul The motif that bad data renders analysis worthless is equally troubling. I agree that it is dangerous to overlook…

  5. Zoli on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 9, 2023 1:18 PM

    Since "lower" masks the fact that the change was NOT significant, the conclusion sounds rather misleading.

  6. Zoli on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 1:10 PM

    "I don’t know what is currently considered the best way to summarize the state of medical knowledge" The fundamental problem…

  7. Rahul on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 9, 2023 12:10 PM

    @joshua : That motif is the source of a lot of problems. The thinking seems to be that data, no…

  8. Roger H on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 11:50 AM

    Googling NIH instead of Cleveland Clinic may give better results: https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/supplements/vitamin-d/ https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Omega3FattyAcids-HealthProfessional/#h7 For English-language info I think I'd generally trust…

  9. Anoneuoid on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 11:40 AM

    These types of studies simply make no sense. A certain amount of raw material (wood/screws/etc) is required for routine maintenance…

  10. oncodoc on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 11:31 AM

    The cited Covid/vit D paper is a raises some questions. They looked at 930 patients admitted to a hospital in…

  11. John G Williams on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 11:29 AM

    My wife takes fish oil, so I looked up one of the Omega-3 papers on Google Scholar. It has 193…

  12. Joshua on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 9, 2023 11:25 AM

    chipmunk - > Bad data isn’t necessarily better than no data and contrary to your point of view, I would…

  13. David Driscoll on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 11:14 AM

    A doctor acquaintance of mine once recommended “UpToDate”, saying that half her work is just looking things up in that…

  14. paul alper on How to digest research claims? (1) vitamin D and covid; (2) fish oil and cancerApril 9, 2023 11:04 AM

    Trusted medical sources, in person or on the internet, are indeed hard to find. On Alex Jones' website there are…

  15. Dale Lehman on Consider the analogy of learning statistics to learning a new language.April 9, 2023 9:33 AM

    1. If I understand your question, most JMP analyses have the built in capability to conduct bootstrap sampling for any…

  16. Carlos Ungil on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 9, 2023 8:49 AM

    What do you think of the “all-cause mortality in the surveyed are[a] was lower in 2020 compared with 2019” conclusion?…

  17. Bénédicte Colnet on with Lauren Kennedy and Jessica Hullman: “Causal quartets: Different ways to attain the same average treatment effect”April 9, 2023 7:23 AM

    Thank you! :)

  18. Joshua on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 11:23 PM

    Yeah. I read it repeatedly to see what was contradictory but not finding it. I was thinking I must be…

  19. Thomas on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 8, 2023 5:14 PM

    chipmunk: You really seem to underestimate the real world complexity of water quality interventions. Decisions based on gut feelings can…

  20. Mark Phariss on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 3:19 PM

    Not having read the actual papers, I don't see a contradiction in the two statements. The first is (implicitly) about…

  21. Dale Lehman on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 8, 2023 3:18 PM

    Your last paragraph is quite a leap. I agree that the data can be bad enough that "any" analysis may…

  22. chipmunk on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 8, 2023 2:54 PM

    "the alternative to bad analysis is no analysis, which is usually worse" I guess I'm not sure why you assume…

  23. M on Nationally poor, locally rich: Income and local context in the 2016 presidential electionApril 8, 2023 1:32 PM

    I don't know that I agree! I'm distinctly aware that my neighborhood is more poor than the one next door,…

  24. J on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 11:37 AM

    Yep, meant contradictory. Statistical analysis is frequently not conclusive. I'd say that's a significant statement at about p<0.05, but your…

  25. Daniel Lakeland on Consider the analogy of learning statistics to learning a new language.April 8, 2023 11:33 AM

    I'd be fine with a stats book that had no programming content, but i still think the course should have…

  26. Andrew on Association between low density lipoprotein cholesterol and all-cause mortalityApril 8, 2023 11:25 AM

    Anon: I guess it depends on the dose? My doctor said I'm on a low dose, which is kinda reassuring.…

  27. Anoneuoid on Association between low density lipoprotein cholesterol and all-cause mortalityApril 8, 2023 11:10 AM

    So if Andrew wants to be informed, he may ask his doctor "What is the chance that taking this statin…

  28. Navigator on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 11:08 AM

    Contradicting, I guess.

  29. Gregory C. Mayer on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 10:36 AM

    I'm not sure why different results from two different places would be considered contradictory, unless you held the belief that…

  30. Shravan Vasishth on Consider the analogy of learning statistics to learning a new language.April 8, 2023 10:22 AM

    A question about JMP (I don't have it and don't use it, this is a real information question): does it…

  31. paul alper on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 10:21 AM

    I am sure that J meant to say "It’s just because looking at a dataset in different ways can tell…

  32. Olaf Zimmermann on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 8, 2023 9:58 AM

    "Mécanisme de relance en faveur des populations rurales pauvres" (MRPRP) - cf. ifad. org Brilliant.

  33. Dale Lehman on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 9:51 AM

    It would be fun to disentangle this, but I don't have the energy. Looking at the 2 studies I see…

  34. Anonymous on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 9:49 AM

    I have often thought about attempting to take a random introduction of some social science paper, and re-write the sentences…

  35. J on Does the scientific literature contradict itself? Very well, then it contradicts itself, it is large, it contains multitudes.April 8, 2023 9:36 AM

    It's just because looking at a dataset in different ways can tell us conducting things.

  36. Chris Wilson on Association between low density lipoprotein cholesterol and all-cause mortalityApril 8, 2023 9:19 AM

    For anyone tuning in, this is dangerous nonsense being peddled. Responding to below first, cholestyramine is not a statin and…

  37. Dale Lehman on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 8, 2023 9:10 AM

    I am sympathetic to this type of analysis - I've done many similar exercises albeit using different methodologies. Simulations and…

  38. Rahul on GiveWell’s Change Our Mind contest, cost-effectiveness, and water quality interventionsApril 8, 2023 8:34 AM

    I think this is an excellent example of "mathiness". We telescope several mathematical analysis, rigorous in themselves, but with analyst…

  39. Andrew on Consider the analogy of learning statistics to learning a new language.April 8, 2023 3:46 AM

    Vladimir: It's the book that Aki and I are finishing and should be available in a few months. I'm really…

  40. Vladimir G. Ivanovic on Consider the analogy of learning statistics to learning a new language.April 7, 2023 8:39 PM

    What is "Active Statistics: Stories, Games, Problems, and Hands-on Demonstrations for Applied Regression and Causal Inference"? A book? A course?…

  41. Paul on The behavioral economists’ researcher degree of freedomApril 7, 2023 8:17 PM

    "... how large is the hot hand effect ..." I answer this in the case of NBA free throws at…

  42. Paul on The behavioral economists’ researcher degree of freedomApril 7, 2023 8:13 PM

    My attempt to answer these questions became too elaborate, so I wound up writing an article on my substack which…

  43. Navigator on Association between low density lipoprotein cholesterol and all-cause mortalityApril 7, 2023 6:02 PM

    Yup. I lot of these studies are just documenting noise, NHST or not. The results usually sound good when only…

  44. Ben on Recent book reviewsApril 7, 2023 3:48 PM

    I just finished Name of the Rose. Tying into the other post with the line: > people poring over an…

  45. Anonymous on Nationally poor, locally rich: Income and local context in the 2016 presidential electionApril 7, 2023 2:24 PM

    Actually it did take me a while to work out, mostly because they switched between their and her a few…

  46. somebody on Consider the analogy of learning statistics to learning a new language.April 7, 2023 1:53 PM

    When people use calculus on real problems, don’t they often plug the integral into a package which applies thousands of…

  47. Phil on Nationally poor, locally rich: Income and local context in the 2016 presidential electionApril 7, 2023 1:20 PM

    I disagree. When people say "A is comparable to B" they mean something like "similar." In fact, when I search…

  48. Sean on Consider the analogy of learning statistics to learning a new language.April 7, 2023 1:16 PM

    When people use calculus on real problems, don't they often plug the integral into a package which applies thousands of…

  49. Phil on Nationally poor, locally rich: Income and local context in the 2016 presidential electionApril 7, 2023 1:10 PM

    I'm pretty sure you know that they aren't just talking about women.

  50. Paul on Nationally poor, locally rich: Income and local context in the 2016 presidential electionApril 7, 2023 12:57 PM

    Honestly, I think zooming out to MSA/County or PUMA might be better here. Down at block/block group/tract in a city…

Proudly powered by WordPress