How bad is low level lead poisoning? Probably not that bad
For some months, I've had a window open with some lead poisoning studies by economists. We know generally not to trust economist work without carefully checking out their tables and…
The art of skeptical statistics
In the very enjoyable book The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data David Spiegelhalter mentions as example of an experiment that sounds too good to be true: In…
The indoctrination effect of universities: overstated
Dictionaries define indoctrination as: the act of indoctrinating, or teaching or inculcating a doctrine, principle, or ideology, especially one with a specific point of view (dictionary.com) the process of repeating…
Misleading plots on secular trends and education
This mistake is very common, and here we look at an arbitrary example I was sent promoted by Rob Henderson on Twitter. This error is quite common (first example I…
Educational interventions keep not working
We've been over this topic previously in 2017, but since this is the eternal idea, let's look at more data. Let's start historically. 1969 Arthur Jensen's famous article “How much…
Fluoride, good for your teeth, not bad for your brain
Many countries add fluoride to the drinking water in the belief this will improve dental health. As with anything else public health, some people think this is a grave mistake.…
PhD students aren’t what they used to be either
One very basic fact of humans is that ability to do anything varies. This is also true for ability to do cognitively demanding jobs of which the main requirement is…
New paper out: Country of Origin IQ and Muslim Percentage Predict Grade Point Average in School among 116 Immigrant Groups in Denmark
Kirkegaard, E. O. W., & Fedorov, J. (2021). Country of Origin IQ and Muslim Percentage Predict Grade Point Average in School among 116 Immigrant Groups in Denmark. Mankind Quarterly, 61(3).…
Educational socialism
Some people think that human differences are just a matter of throwing enough money at the problem. Naturally, then, they always advocate for more educational spending whenever inconvenient gaps are…
The ‘attitude-achievement paradox’
Speaking of philosophy of science, one of the things about new paradigms is that they are supposed to solve anomalies of older paradigms. A while ago, Dalliard (2014) mentioned (in…