9/17/2011

What social science does and doesn't know

Two interesting conceptions
Causal density:number and complexity of potential causes of the outcome interest
Counterfactual: against the truth

I found that experts often use causal density to tarry of the criticism,like the scenario presented in the story.
What I think interesting: Before reading the essay,I thought that social science is not quite accurate because there're so many variables and individuals that it's very hard to use a generalization to hold all the cases.And the article somewhat confirms my opinion.But to my mild surprise,experiments play a significant role in social science.Scaling up the experiments means that the final result can become mathematically accurate.
Questions
(1)What's the relation between nuisance abatement and broken window policing?

This article claims that in social science, results of certain experiments cannot be generalized because every data is unique because of the time, apparatus, space, weather, etc.We can only make the outcome more accurately by replicating the experiments.In social science,few programs work properly in randomized and replicated tasks;it's more difficult to change people than to change incentive;few program can act as a panacea.

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