Talk:Self-selection bias

This paragraph of the text is inflamatory and therefore needs to be rewritten to eliminate the writer's apparent bias against scientists:

"Some believe that self-selection as well as the field of statistics in general has made a mockery of the so-called mental health, police, and judicial systems of most countries in that the role of these so-called professionals has replaced the roles that religious fanatics used to play in societies preceding the contentious "scientific revolution" that began in the enlightenment years ago. Some believe that people who are trained in these fields pose a serious threat to society in the same way religious fanatics posed a threat to humanity in terms of life and the quality of life lost as a result of zealous ideology and consensus building. What is frightening is that like religious people, these so-called professionals actually believe in the research they publish and the consensus they receive from like-minded professionals who pursue their own interests. Unlike religion, however, no one can argue against "science" backed up by statistics. They hold infallible truth, unless proven wrong by the same erroneous methods which takes time, money, and the destruction of many innocent lives. Most governments are aware of the situation and tacitly support their agendas, via state-funded scientists, to pursue their own interests. Except this time they control religion and science so no one is able to argue against them. Since most scientists are not trained to think logically, and logic in itself as well as the its associated content is vaguely defined (ex. some logical fallacies do not exclude relativism, even though some argue that the very basis of logic is in presuming that all individuals share the same environment irrespective of perspective (which if ignored arguably leads to unfalsifiable statements)). Unfortunately, "hard" science itself is not fully immune to the same ludicrous cult of statistics and other vaguely defined concepts/generalizations that violate the very principles of justice. Like religious fanatics, scientists frequently invoke the concept of relativity and "spectrum" to defend their unfalsifiable theories yet few are bold enough to admit that their entire lives and their beliefs are little more than a sad mockery of religion."

Hid section
Also needs more source input. But damn interesting. FX (talk) 16:14, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Dr. Steinhardt's comment on this article
Dr. Steinhardt has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:

"Self-selection is an important characteristic of international and internal migration. E.g, George Borjas: "Self-Selection and the Earnings of Immigrants," American Economic Review, September 1987."

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 * Reference : Kuhlenkasper, Torben & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2012. "Who leaves and when? Selective outmigration of immigrants from Germany," HWWI Research Papers 128, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 19:07, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Dr. Veszteg's comment on this article
Dr. Veszteg has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:

"(original) Self-selection bias is a major problem in research in sociology, psychology, economics and many other social sciences.[1] In such fields, a poll suffering from such bias is termed a self-selected listener opinion poll or "SLOP".[2] The term is also used in criminology to describe the process by which specific predispositions may lead an offender to choose a criminal career and lifestyle.

(modified) Self-selection bias is a major problem in empirical research in social sciences (in economics, sociology, psychology and many other) as it can undermine the external validity of the research findings.[1] Instances of self-selection bias include polls suffering from such bias termed as self-selected listener opinion poll or "SLOP"[2], and processes in criminology by which specific predispositions may lead an offender to choose a criminal career and lifestyle.

In economics, the growing use of volunteer participants in laboratory experiments (refer to experimental economics) raises questions about the generalisability of the findings due to possible self-selection biases. While self-selections to the experimental laboratory does seem to happen (Guillen and Veszteg, 2012), it has been shown to cause no significant or important biases in research findings in a number of setups (Exadaktylos et al., 2013; Anderson et al., 2013; Abeler and Nosenzo, 2015).

Abeler, J., Nosenzo, D. (2015) Self-selection into laboratory experiments: pro-social motives versus monetary incentives, Experimental Economics, June 2015, Volume 18, Issue 2, pp 195–214, doi:10.1007/s10683-014-9397-9

Anderson, J., Burks, S.V., Carpenter, J., Götte, L., Maurer, K., Nosenzo, D., Potter, R., Rocha, K., Rustichini, A. (2013) Self-selection and variations in the laboratory measurement of other-regarding preferences across subject pools: evidence from one college student and two adult samples, Experimental Economics, June 2013, Volume 16, Issue 2, pp 170-189, doi: 10.1007/s10683-012-9327-7

Exadaktylos, F., Espín, A.M., Brañas-Garza, P. (2013) Experimental subjects are not different, Scientific Reports 3, Article number: 1213, doi:10.1038/srep01213

Guillén P., Veszteg, R.F. (2012) On “lab rats”, The Journal of Socio-Economics, Volume 41, Issue 5, October 2012, Pages 714–720, doi:10.1016/j.socec.2012.07.002"

We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

We believe Dr. Veszteg has expertise on the topic of this article, since he has published relevant scholarly research:


 * Reference : Pablo Guillen & Robert F.Veszteg, 2006. "Subject Pool Bias in Economics Experiments," ThE Papers 06/03, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 15:28, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

I found 3 possible sources that would link to this topic. How does everyone feel about these? They have some basic information that may be good for those wanting to look deeper at a topic. https://dictionary.apa.org/self-selection-bias http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/EP/EP713_Bias/EP713_Bias2.html https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=596225 CMaskrey15 (talk) 01:27, 16 February 2019 (UTC)