Re: [PATCH] The Guile junk drawer and a C plea

[Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide]

Attila Lendvai <attila@lendvai.name> writes:

>> Do you know that the Broken Window theory has been debunked?
>> https://cssh.northeastern.edu/sccj/2019/05/21/researchers-debunk-broken-windows-theory-after-35-years/
>
> there's no need for scientific papers about something i can observe myself. 
> both inside me, in my own reactions and judgments, and also in external 
> reality, in the behavior of other people.

Then I don’t know whether you speak of the actual broken windows theory.

That theory says: if there are small problems like broken windows, crime
will go up, so being heavy handed even for the smallest kind of disorder
will reduce serious crimes.

That’s the broken windows theory. It was the basis for much of the
brutal law enforcement in the USA.

And it is wrong.

When people looked into the actual crime data, there was no evidence
that accepting small disturbances causes a higher rate serious
disturbances.

There is an actual effect of accepting violations: when a specific rule
is violated the first time and that gets tolerated *that specific rule*
stops to feel binding to other people.

> and re debunking: The Science™ has reached a point where anything and their 
> opposite has a peer reviewed publication now, especially in social sciences 
> where replicability is...

Despite the often poor replicability of social sciences, that’s not
true. There is observable reality, and that shows that the broken
windows theory is wrong.

> but anyway, i don't have a dog in this fight.

When it comes to general statements against science, I do.

I know the amount of work that goes into even a single publication, how
much more dilligence, effort, and skill that takes than writing a
newspaper article. How careful most (though sadly not all) people are
with their statements in publications. I only published two papers
myself and reviewed a few more, but that experience showed me the
difference between a scientific publication and just throwing some
statements into the web.

Also social sciences have ramped up their replication studies in recent
years. Because most scientists actually care about checking.

Social sciences are just under much worse financial pressure than STEM.

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein,
ohne es zu merken.
draketo.de

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