Best of Twitter - Week of July 19, 2021
1/ Thread (and it's a big'un!):
Issues with Psychotherapy Research
It is 2021 and virtually none of following major issues have been largely addressed, which severely undermines the practical value of the research.
3/ I support, <3, and provide psychotherapy. This is NOT a debunking of it, nor would I dissuade a single soul from taking it or providing it. For children and adolescents, psychotherapy is essential and should be considered first line in most situations.
^ interesting thread about bad experimental design in psychotherapy studies causing overstatement of positive effects, underreported negative side effects, researcher bias…
"a first year will ask a question that makes perfect sense if you believe papers at face value, but no one would even think to ask if they knew how the sausage is made"
The gender gap on Nuclear power is giant. 70-23 approval from men, 38-42 opposition from women. It may actually be the largest gender gap on a political issue.
Alex Muresianu @ahardtospell
^ ????
One of the most common, least questioned pieces of dietary advice is the Variety Hypothesis: that a more widely varied diet is better than a less varied diet. I think that this is false; most people's diets are on the margin too varied.
In a somewhat similar vein (though her piece is focused on different dynamics), Marcia Angell wrote a long article in NYRB that includes the below.
nybooks.com/articles/2009/…
Patrick Collison @patrickc
It used to be that only heavily armed nuclear weapons states had computers. Then rich people had them. Then everyone had them.
It used to be that only heavily armed nuclear weapons states could go to space. Then rich people could. Then…