brazil84 comments on Undiscriminating Skepticism - Less Wrong

97 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 March 2010 11:23PM

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Comment author: gwern 07 January 2012 04:25:48PM *  2 points [-]

Believing in "stereotype threat" as the main reason for the black/white IQ gap is like believing in Aquinas' arguments for the existence of God.

In what sense, exactly? Some of his arguments look logical, like the ontological argument, and others like the argument from design look empirical (and falsified by evolution).

Stereotype threat, on the other hand, looks entirely empirical, should be measurable, and can be argued against by pointing to a meta-analysis showing publication bias (I checked just now, and a full paper does not seem to have been published nor is it listed on one of the authors' homepages which otherwise lists all his work; this nonpublication is ironic if the original meta-analysis was correct...)

Comment author: brazil84 08 January 2012 12:10:57AM -2 points [-]

In what sense, exactly?

In the sense that to accept the argument, one needs to allow wishful thinking to overcome basic rationality.

Comment author: MixedNuts 08 January 2012 12:22:08AM 0 points [-]

I did not even think of stereotype threat as a possible hypothesis until I read about it, at which point I thought it sounded pretty implausible for the thirty seconds it took me to reach the study results. Your model of the psychology of stereotype threat believers is just plain wrong as a matter of fact.

Comment author: brazil84 08 January 2012 12:43:38AM *  -2 points [-]

I did not even think of stereotype threat as a possible hypothesis until I read about it, at which point I thought it sounded pretty implausible for the thirty seconds it took me to reach the study results. Your model of the psychology of stereotype threat believers is just plain wrong as a matter of fact.

I'm not sure what your point is here, but if you want to discuss it further (with me), feel free to comment on my blog post.

Comment author: MixedNuts 08 January 2012 01:50:24AM 0 points [-]

Which one?

Comment author: brazil84 08 January 2012 10:01:51AM 0 points [-]