Social genomics: genomic inventions in society. The nature of what's to come

This paper identifies several kinds of intellectual mistakes that proponents of genetic engineering make, in defending their views and characterizing the views of their opponents. Results from research in the social sciences and humanities illuminate the nature of these mistakes. The mistakes themselves play a role in allowing proponents to gather support from other protagonists in the social controversies involving science and technology. Understanding the controversies requires understanding that innovations are components of complex and ill-structured social problems; the "right answer" does not follow from scientific or technological breakthroughs. If the problems are identified correctly, issues of non-economic or non-market values and political and individual rights will need to be addressed.     

Bootstrapping to test for nonzero population correlation coefficients using univariate sampling

This article proposes 2 new approaches to test a nonzero population correlation (rho): the hypothesis-imposed univariate sampling bootstrap (HI) and the observed-imposed univariate sampling bootstrap (OI). The authors simulated correlated populations with various combinations of normal and skewed variates. With alpha set=.05, N> or =10, and rho< or =0.4, empirical Type I error rates of the parametric r and the conventional bivariate sampling bootstrap reached .168 and .081, respectively, whereas the largest error rates of the HI and the OI were .079 and .062. On the basis of these results, the authors suggest that the OI is preferable in alpha control to parametric approaches if the researcher believes the population is nonnormal and wishes to test for nonzero rhos of moderate size.     

Examining the Relationship Between Conspiracy Theories,Paranormal Beliefs,and Pseudoscience Acceptance Among a University Population

Very little research has investigated whether believing in paranormal, conspiracy, and pseudoscientific claims are related, even though they share the property of having no epistemic warrant. The present study investigated the association between these categories of epistemically unwarranted beliefs. Results revealed moderate to strong positive correlations between the three categories of epistemically unwarranted beliefs, suggesting that believers in one type tended to also endorse other types. In addition, one individual difference measure, looking at differences in endorsing ontological confusions, was found to be predictive of both paranormal and conspiracy beliefs. Understanding the relationship between peoples' beliefs in these types of claims has theoretical implications for research into why individuals believe empirically unsubstantiated claims. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On Muddled Reasoning and Mediation Modeling

The hope of mediation modeling is that psychologists can go beyond tests of association to truly uncover mechanisms of change. We argue this hope can be realized only if psychologists make important distinctions regarding causality and inference. From the perspective of Aristotelian philosophy, mediation models are sequences of efficient causes, and psychologists should therefore seek to identify those persons who can be traced through the entire sequence successfully. By reanalyzing data from two mediation studies we demonstrate that contemporary, aggregate methods of analysis are not suitable for this task because they are instead focused on making inferences about population parameters. In both studies alternative, person-centered methods revealed that majorities of participants were not traceable through the statistically significant mediation models.     

A context-independent situational judgment test to measure prosocial implicit trait policy

Two studies developed and validated a context-independent situational judgment test (SJT) of prosocial implicit trait policy (ITP). The first study developed a SJT based on critical incidents about the prosocial behavior of physicians, lawyers, community service volunteers, and human factors engineers. In a sample of 396 undergraduates, scores obtained from this SJT were internally consistent and correlated significantly with other trait constructs related to prosocial ITP. In the second study with 134 undergraduates, the SJT was significantly correlated with relevant trait constructs and prosocial performance in role-plays simulating scenarios in which others needed help. These results show that a generic SJT developed from items that describe situations and actions specific to several occupations can predict behavior in situations unlike any that appear in its items.