You make a false distinction between “politics” and “science,” one based on argument and the other on “objectivity.” They are of exactly the same form, conducted in exactly the same way, by exactly the same people.

Both are done by humans, humans who want. Whatever truth is out there is barely detectable through the mist of envy and need and hope. They will make their words and their numbers say anything they need them to.

- Are Women Prone To Paranormal Beliefs? at TheLastPsychiatrist.com

… and it is far easier to report on “research” which reinforces an agenda – the problem of sorting out fact from contrivance (particularly if the “researcher” believes his or her own distortions of truth) cannot and should not be left to the news media but, most unfortunately, it cannot be left to the news consumer either.

Update: T+37:20:00

Need examples of the organizations disingenuously blurring the line between politics and science? An institute is defined by Princeton WordNet as “an association organized to promote art or science or education” – the following are, in fact, political lobbyist organizations and industry trade groups. The organizations’ names belie their intentions, because who wouldn’t trust Gavin Gibbons of the prestigious National Fisheries Institute?

He must be a respected scientist and not just some lame PR flack, right? *

They don’t research anything, they just game the system with political contributions and spew a seemingly-endless stream of press releases.

• Advertising Research Foundation
• Marketing Research Association
• Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
• American Beverage Institute
• American Frozen Food Institute
• American Institute of Constructors
• American Iron and Steel Institute
• American Meat Institute
• American Petroleum Institute
• Community Associations Institute
• Edison Electric Institute
• Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries
• Investment Company Institute
• National Fisheries Institute
• Nuclear Energy Institute
• Pellet Fuels Institute
• Tobacco Institute

* Yes, I pick on Gavin Gibbons regularly. Why? Because he seems to be using automated means to post comments to blogs like this one (in which case he is a spammer – if not that, then at least blithely foolish) and he says things like “I have had a look at an advanced copy of the Sept/Oct edition of Mother Jones. And I must say “Tuna Surprise” is not much of a surprise coming from such a blatantly agenda-driven outfit.” while he works for an industry trade group and, quite obviously, minimizing and/or discrediting negative press is his employer’s sole agenda where posting comments to my blog is concerned. If you can find a more transparent hypocrite, please let me know.

When we’re unnerved by an unsavory caricature, our minds race; we’re vigilant; we’re arguing internally against the stereotype; denying its relevance; disparaging anyone who would use such a stereotype; pitying ourselves; trying to be stoic. In short, we’re doing everything except high level thinking—the kind that leads to academic excellence. We’ve channeled our limited cognitive power into dealing with the threatening caricature.

- The Ironic Power of Stereotype

Confusing the issue – framing interactions as racial conflicts or otherwise adding a distracting context to otherwise-unrelated events – seems to be a popular way to tire out the opposition or even create enough white noise to suppress rational analysis of disinformation.

Emotional reactions make it easier for me to lead the conversation.

… Researchers found that subjects assigned leadership roles were buffered from the negative effects of lying. Across all measures, the high-power liars — the leaders — resembled truthtellers, showing no evidence of cortisol reactivity (which signals stress), cognitive impairment or feeling bad. In contrast, low-power liars — the subordinates — showed the usual signs of stress and slower reaction times. “Having power essentially buffered the powerful liars from feeling the bad effects of lying, from responding in any negative way or giving nonverbal cues that low-power liars tended to reveal,” Carney explains.

- Powerful Lies at Columbia Business School
2010-01-22

[via Bruce Schneier]

New evidence toward a proof of the sucker hierarchy..?

Life in a city is inherently chaotic – granted, there are laws which govern how everything behaves and, given enough information, it would be possible to simulate every possible scenario and discern what’s happening from the quanta in an electron which composes a polymer in the plastic seat your ass is parked in to the thoughts of the person sitting next to you on the subway – but survival is generally not of grave concern at a given moment… until it is.

… and when your life depends upon situational awareness, you can count on your five senses (along with that sixth sense of cognitive dissonance) but little else: those entrusted with maintaining control over critical situations will restrict the availability of viable information if that’s as much control as they’ve got.

The person sitting next to you? Probably thinking about dinner or the events of the day or what’ll be on the television… but he or she could be thinking about the thirty-pound bundle of explosives and shrapnel in his or her satchel – and you’d be none the wiser if you were depending upon local law enforcement to clue you in to a terrorist attack.

Announcements informed passengers of delays due to “technical reasons,” avoiding anything more specific.

- Suicide bombers kill 38 in Moscow’s subway at MSNBC
2010-03-28

Containment has failed. Keep them calm. Avoid panic.

“It’s tied in with self-esteem,” says University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert Feldman. “We find that as soon as people feel that their self-esteem is threatened, they immediately begin to lie at higher levels.”

- Why We Lie at Tehran Times
2010-03-09

Preserve the façade of safety. Everything is under control.

Control requires complicit obedience and conditioned responses (the kind which a novel situation would preclude) – some situations must be down-played to prevent stampedes and ensure continuity, even if that means stifling the truth and inviting further casualties: the governing organism which demands freedom in exchange for security must not be exposed for its lies.

Just as the identities we create for other people and things help us model their behavior, the identities we create for ourselves help us model our own behavior. We have a great deal of control over our own behavior, so our predictive models, in some respects, are also self-fulfilling prophecies.

If you think that you are the type of person who would rush into a burning building to save a child, then there is a good chance that you will. If you don’t live up to this self-image, you will either have to change it or continue pretending to be something you are not.

We constantly modify our self-images. How often have you done something and then said to yourself “That wasn’t like me at all!”? When that happens, you are faced with the choice of changing your identity model to fit the facts or deciding that you will not do such a thing again.

- God Wants You Dead
by Sean Hastings and Paul Rosenberg

An apt description of what drives people to do things even they don’t understand.

… [T]hings that are familiar are—generally speaking—less risky. This is the same impulse that makes us buy the same soap or automobile over and over again: It’s worked in the past, so it’s likely a safe bet again today. With recognizable people, that positive feeling, that sense of comfort, often feels like a warm glow.

- A warm glow in Bangkok
We’re Only Human
2010-01-29

… and what could be more familiar than the little voice at the back of your skull with its constant reminders: strange is dangerous, different is strange, any deviation is different, and you must not deviate from the master plan.

[We] live in a world very different from the one we evolved in. Our reflexive defenses might be optimized for the risks endemic to living in small family groups in the East African highlands in 100,000 BC, not 2009 New York City. But we can go beyond fear, and actually think sensibly about security.

Far too often, we don’t. We tend to be poor judges of risk. We overact to rare risks, we ignore long-term risks, we magnify risks that are also morally offensive. We get risks wrong — threats, probabilities, and costs — all the time. When we’re afraid, really afraid, we’ll do almost anything to make that fear go away. Both politicians and marketers have learned to push that fear button to get us to do what they want.

- Fighting The Fear Factor
by Bruce Schneier
2009-11-03

Most therapists discourage the use of extreme terms.

For example, a wife would be challenged when she says, “he never spends time with the kids,” unless she can prove that the term never is factually accurate. More often than not such a term isn’t entirely on target and, moreover, it often generates defensiveness on the person toward it is directed.

If the wife makes a slight change and says, “he doesn’t spend nearly as much time with the kids as I would like him to,” not only is she conveying a likely more accurate statement, but she’s setting up a productive, problem-solving dialogue with the husband.

- A Russian Doctor Hates Me
ShrinkTalk.net
2009-10-20

The power of words – I think we hold our internal monologue (my voice) far too dear. It is wrong to attempt to force the world outside our preconceived notions to conform but that doesn’t stop us from trying.

How much conflict could be avoided if the words of each of our operators were accepted as that – merely words – reframed as advice and not dogmatic truth?

Advice? I am you.

Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak. That is all that can be said for them. They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account

- The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde, 1890

This traverse may the poorest take
without oppress of toll;

… how frugal is the chariot
that bears a human soul!