Friday, November 06, 2015
Treat people as individuals, but let's not pretend that stereotypes appear out of thin air.
Stereotype Inaccuracy? | Psychology Today: "...stereotype accuracy — the correspondence of stereotype beliefs with criteria — is one of the largest relationships in all of social psychology. The correlations of stereotypes with criteria range from .4 to over .9, and average almost .8 for cultural stereotypes (the correlation of beliefs that are widely shared with criteria) and.5 for personal stereotypes (the correlation of one individual’s stereotypes with criteria, averaged over lots of individuals). The average effect in social psychology is about .20. Stereotypes are more valid than most social psychological hypotheses...
Which raises a question: Why do so many psychologists emphasize stereotype inaccuracy when the evidence so clearly provides evidence of such high accuracy? Why is there this Extraordinary Scientific Delusion?
There may be many explanations, but one that fits well is the leftward lean of most psychologists. If we can self-righteously rail against other people's inaccurate stereotypes, we cast ourselves as good, decent egalitarians fighting the good fight, siding with the oppressed against their oppressors. Furthermore, as Jon Haidt has repeatedly shown, ideology blinds people to facts that are right under their noses. Liberal social scientists often have assumed stereotypes were inaccurate without bothering to test for inaccuracy, and, when the evidence has been right under their noses, they have avoided looking at it. And when something happens where they can't avoid looking at it, they have denigrated its importance. Which is, in some ways, very amusing -- if, after 100 years of proclaiming the inaccuracy of stereotypes to the world, can we really just say "Never mind, it's not that important" after the evidence comes in showing that stereotype accuracy is one of the largest relationships in all of social psychology?"
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
"Would a visit to campus from Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum result in mass fainting spells?"
The Left is going to keep eating itself, and then they'll be shocked when all that's left is folks who tilt Right. You'll Never Guess Which Students Want a Pro-Gay Film Screening Cancelled Because It's Too Offensive - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Conservative students at Colorado College think Stonewall (2015)—a pro-gay film about gay liberation in New York City that bears the tagline “where pride began”—is too offensive to be shown on campus and want the administration to cancel an upcoming screening.
Just kidding. It’s actually gay student activists affiliated with the college’s LGBTQIA+ group who object to the film, which was directed by openly gay filmmaker Roland Emmerich and positively depicts gay people fighting for equality in 1969...
...the students aren’t having any of it: “Critical discussion is simply a way of engaging in respectability politics,” said first-year Amelia Eskani. “I think Colorado College should cancel the screening because the safety and well-being of queer and trans* students surpasses the importance of a critical discussion.” … “If CC is really as dedicated to diversity and inclusion,” said junior Grace Montesano, “They would never have agreed to screen a film that queer students have repeatedly stated is a threat to our identity and our safety.” … “It is fallacious to equate the rights of students to view a movie with the rights of students to exist free of violence.”
That’s right: the film isn’t merely offensive to gay and trans students (despite having a truly gay-affirming message), it’s actively dangerous to their physical well-being, according to R.A.I.D. This is a complaint emotionally-coddled students often make: that some kind of expression is so triggering that allowing it to proceed constitutes an act of violence. Such complaints are usually pure hyperbole, but hyperbole doesn’t even begin to cover the opinions of Colorado College’s precious snowflakes. If screening Stonewall on campus is an act of violence against queer students, what would students say about, I don’t know, a Kirk Cameron film? Pure genocide? Would a visit to campus from Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum result in mass fainting spells?"
Monday, November 02, 2015
"Jaysus, what kind of a Preacher are you?"
If it's even half as good as the series of books, gonna be fantastic.
