On the dangers of methodolatry, moral hazard and myopia in research.

摘要

We are probably all familiar with the uncanny ability of politicians to form diametrically opposed interpretations about an issue from the same set of statistics in order to support their own political stance or viewpoint. This has led to the now ubiquitous phrase 'lies, damned lies or statistics', but the problem often lies in the interpretation of the data rather than the data itself as my reference to the selective myopia of politicians clearly testifies. It would of course be nice to think that scientists do not behave in such a way, but it seems a unique feature of our species that each of us may be afflicted by a blinkered mindset from time to time.