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wedrifid comments on Open Thread: April 2010, Part 2 - Less Wrong
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Any tips on efficiently gathering information on controversial, non-technical subjects, such a "how to raise your kids" or "pros and cons of spanking your kids"? (those are relatively good examples because a lot of people have a strong opinion on them)
I usually look on Wikipedia first, but while it's good at giving a basic overview of a question, it's quite bad at presenting evidence in a properly organized way (I learnt first hand that improving a controversial article is hard).
Research papers are more rigorous and more likely to contain actual useful and surprising information, but finding the right ones is quite a bit of work, and papers non-technical fields don't have a huge
Then there are all kinds of opinion columns and blogs and books - but they tend to be of varying quality, and I don't know what's the best way to find those that honestly summarize the available evidence (as opposed to taking a somewhat extreme position to make the writing more interesting, or trying to present the ideas as new, etc.).
Any useful tips and heuristics?
It is a difficult question to answer. I can point to various studies but I must keep in mind that those that made me aware of such studies are not necessarily unbiased.
That depends. You need to know just what you want your kids to be like. And that has to be what you really want your kids to be like, not what it sounds good to say you want your kids to be like. For example, spanking kids will make them more likely to be physically aggressive. But this may well benefit them in the long run, teaching them tactics for maintaining higher status and so improving their health and happiness.
There is a clear negative correlation between childhood spanking and IQ. But given that your child's genetic heritage is already determined, your own choice of behaviour quite possibly has no causal influence on the IQ outcome. Low IQ parents are more likely to be physically (rather than verbally or socially) aggressive and also more likely to pass on genes for low IQ so causal influence from the spanking is doubtful.