Interesting Research by Cornell Psychology Prof

[KeithK]

Bem on Colbert last Thursday.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/372474/january-27-2011/time-traveling-porn---daryl-bem

Saw that.  Didn't exactly help his "cause", did it?

Not for me.  53% is "significant" because that's the amount of the popular vote Obama got?  Funny, I don't remember studying the "one-tailed Obama test" in any of my stats classes...

53% would be pretty damn significant if he had as many samples as there were votes in 2008.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Bem on Colbert last Thursday.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/372474/january-27-2011/time-traveling-porn---daryl-bem

Saw that.  Didn't exactly help his "cause", did it?

Not for me.  53% is "significant" because that's the amount of the popular vote Obama got?  Funny, I don't remember studying the "one-tailed Obama test" in any of my stats classes...

53% would be pretty damn significant if he had as many samples as there were votes in 2008.

And the whole discussion came down to:  Weak statistics show that people have ESP because they anticipated porn appearing.  Did it have to be porn?  Besides the fact that the statistics don't seem overwhelming, the fact that it was porn really makes the study look somewhat silly, or at least childish.

[Robb]

Bem on Colbert last Thursday.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/372474/january-27-2011/time-traveling-porn---daryl-bem

Saw that.  Didn't exactly help his "cause", did it?

Not for me.  53% is "significant" because that's the amount of the popular vote Obama got?  Funny, I don't remember studying the "one-tailed Obama test" in any of my stats classes...

53% would be pretty damn significant if he had as many samples as there were votes in 2008.

And the whole discussion came down to:  Weak statistics show that people have ESP because they anticipated porn appearing.  Did it have to be porn?  Besides the fact that the statistics don't seem overwhelming, the fact that it was porn really makes the study look somewhat silly, or at least childish.

Apparently, it did - the other 8 studies (that didn't use porn) didn't find anything...

[Trotsky]

Apparently, it did - the other 8 studies (that didn't use porn) didn't find anything...

Occam's Razor.  We are always anticipating porn.

[ugarte]

Apparently, it did - the other 8 studies (that didn't use porn) didn't find anything...

Occam's Razor.  We are always anticipating porn.

This. Or we are just optimistic by nature.