Fads and Fallacies in the Social Sciences by Steven Goldberg: Part I

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=902 ^ | William Briggs

[mattstat]

If Sally is over six feet tall and Bill is over six feet tall, too, are Sally and Bill over six feet tall? What if you had a room full of Sallys, each at least six feet, and in that room are also a gaggle of Bills, all over six feet. Would it be true that each person in that room is at least six feet tall?

Men, on average, are taller than women. It is certainly true that some women are taller than some men, but in any collection of “the tallest” most of those collected will be men and few will be women. Thus, if we as a society began rewarding tallness monetarily, more money would go to men than to women. Suppose this is true: tall people receive generous and regular payouts from the government. If, in this utopia, we were to collect data on the socioeconomic status of men and women we would find that men have higher status than women on average, simply because men are, on average, taller. But could we say that it is society that is making men taller? How about our room full of Sallys and Bills? Aren’t they all, on average, in the same high socioeconomic category because they are all tall?

These are not difficult questions, which is why it is amazing that if you change “extreme height” to “extreme mathematical ability” or “extreme intelligence” some people are unable to answer them correctly. Steven Goldberg tells us how come trained, academic sociologists can’t—and more importantly, don’t want to—give proper answers...

[wendy1946]

The perfect woman....

[mattstat]

Gotta tell ya, Wendy1946, she looks pretty good to me. I’m *no* fan of skinny.