Editing 1999: Selection Effect
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | The title refers to the effect in scientific fields where | + | The title refers to the effect in scientific fields where the people who agree to work with a researcher can affect the outcome. For example if I said I wanted to do a study on an embarrassing condition, people who know they have it might be more apprehensive and thus not participate. This can skew the results to say that the condition is rarer than it is. This is called the {{w|selection bias}}, or more precisely, the {{w|self-selection bias}}. Ironically, to avoid any selection bias, researchers would have to force their ''randomly'' selected subjects to participate in their study, but yet the uneasiness shown by the mandatory subjects again skews the results. |
− | [[Ponytail]] says that people who agree to be in a study at their lab are less likely to attempt to escape. The only way Ponytail could have come to this conclusion is if she compared those people to people who did not agree to be in the study. This implies that Ponytail has recently kidnapped people for a study, and that most of the people she kidnapped called the police, as one should do when being kidnapped. This makes sense, since if you agreed to the study, you know why you are there, while if you didn't, you may have been kidnapped | + | [[Ponytail]] says that people who agree to be in a study at their lab are less likely to attempt to escape. The only way Ponytail could have come to this conclusion is if she compared those people to people who did not agree to be in the study. This implies that Ponytail has recently kidnapped people for a study, and that most of the people she kidnapped called the police, as one should do when being kidnapped. This makes sense, since if you agreed to the study, you know why you are there, while if you didn't, you may have been kidnapped. |
− | The comic shows Ponytail being allowed to present the results of this study at a conference; reputable scientific journals and conferences should not legitimize studies that clearly violate their ethical norms, such as by failing to obtain informed consent from human subjects before experimenting on them. Unfortunately, involuntary studies are published and presented, like this 2014 [http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/30/facebook-ethics-labratsemotionalcontagion.html Facebook's emotional contagion study]. It is not clear how many people who did agree to participate may have attempted to call the police for assistance regardless; compare the {{w|Stanford Prison Experiment}}. This is similar to previous comics where obvious things are presented in obfuscated, scientific ways (e.g. [[1990: Driving Cars]]) | + | The comic shows Ponytail being allowed to present the results of this study at a conference; reputable scientific journals and conferences should not legitimize studies that clearly violate their ethical norms, such as by failing to obtain informed consent from human subjects before experimenting on them. Unfortunately, involuntary studies are published and presented, like this 2014 [http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/30/facebook-ethics-labratsemotionalcontagion.html Facebook's emotional contagion study]. It is not clear how many people who did agree to participate may have attempted to call the police for assistance regardless; compare the {{w|Stanford Prison Experiment}}. This is similar to previous comics where obvious things are presented in obfuscated, scientific ways (e.g. [[1990: Driving Cars]]). |
− | The title text refers to a technique that measures brain activity, called {{w|Functional magnetic resonance imaging|Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)}}. | + | The title text refers to a technique that measures brain activity, called {{w|Functional magnetic resonance imaging|Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)}}. The willingness to participate is here probably detected by a machine. And of course it's much more likely that those people will resist and escape before the scan is complete. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | ||
[[Category:Science]] | [[Category:Science]] | ||
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