Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Important things to remember when you look at research that 'proves' something

From Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution


•All research is provisional
•All research raises as many questions as it answers
•All research is difficult to interpret and to draw clear conclusions from
•Qualitative research may be vital to elaborate experience, suggest narratives for understanding phenomena and generate hypotheses but it can’t be taken to prove anything
•Quantitative research may be able to show hard findings but can rarely (never?) give clear answers to complex questions
And to that I'll add my own 6th rule:  Any given piece of research that confirms a person's world view will be taken as validation, any given research result that contradicts it will be marginalized or ignored.

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