tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post4632298530043293870..comments2024-03-28T12:45:41.494+01:00Comments on Nick Brown's blog: More problematic sexual attraction research, this time with high heelsNick Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172030184497186082noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-13140283277939088222017-12-06T12:41:20.754+01:002017-12-06T12:41:20.754+01:00You have a fair point, although as the charts show...You have a fair point, although as the charts show, the conditions in which men were more likely to approach the woman in the first couple of minutes are those in which she does not have high heels. It is sometimes difficult to maintain full analytical rigour when confronted with a study that appears to "offer multiple opportunities for improvement" (had I written what I really think about this study, I would doubtless have been accused of adopting an unprofessional tone).<br /><br />The broader point is that "mean time before approaching" clearly does not make sense as a model for the effect of high heels on women's attractiveness, because the author has not established any reason why this should be normally distributed.Nick Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18266307287741345798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-85109712437411974332017-12-06T10:16:54.138+01:002017-12-06T10:16:54.138+01:00The paper is obviously a steaming pile of **** - i...The paper is obviously a steaming pile of **** - it hardly seems worth even reading it let along carrying out a time consuming forensic analysis. It clearly stinks. And even if the study had been carried out effectively – what’s the point? Manolo Blahnik wouldn’t be able to sell heels for $1000 if they were having zero effect on women’s attractiveness.<br /><br />However, #4 is not persuasive. Essentially you have demonstrated that, given the means and SDs reported in the paper, it is extremely unlikely that any men approached the woman less than 2 minutes after she sat down. <br /><br />But the author never claimed that anyone approached the woman in less than 2 minutes. So, this criticism boils down to the fact that the data don’t fit with your intuitions about how men in a bar will behave.<br /><br />Other people’s intuitions might be that – given that n = 12 in the high heels condition – it really isn’t that implausible that not one approached in < 2 mins (particularly since “nonverbal behavior such as a fixed gaze or a smile” were not counted as an approach).<br /><br />Now if the author had reported that some men had approached the woman in less than 2 minutes – then your analysis would obviously show that this was extremely implausible given the reported means and SDs. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-64939993101138101742017-12-06T01:43:58.533+01:002017-12-06T01:43:58.533+01:00Yeah, my point about the social meaning of the sho...Yeah, my point about the social meaning of the shoes might be subsumed by the hypothesis, and he does sort of bring it up in the discussion, suggesting that one explanation for men preferring women in heels is that men are conditioned by media representations to see high-heeled women as sexy, and this may lead men "to misinterpret the sexual intent of women with high heels." This is only after discussing several evo-psych hypotheses about high heels making a woman look like a better reproductive partner. But all of the explanations for the effect seem to assume that this is some sort of automatic behavior by men, rather than part of a game of social signals. <br /><br />The thing is "men find women in high heels attractive" is almost a truism, as is the assumption that women wear high heels to attract men. It's something that people talk about and acknowledge overtly. Extremely high heels are sometimes called "come f*ck me shoes"! But the assumption of the study is that this is some kind of subliminal effect that the men themselves are unaware of. This study, with its lit review of studies finding that men are attracted to large breasts (who knew?), or blonds (gosh, really?), seems determined to show not just that these cliches are true, but that there is something fundamental and universal about them.<br /><br />I suppose what I'm talking about here is the social context of the study itself, so it's not necessarily relevant to the kind of critique you're making. But it does get at the question of why anybody would do such a study (or pretend to) in the first place. Janet Laflerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11263007194674042414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-40132513222298764802017-12-06T00:38:01.969+01:002017-12-06T00:38:01.969+01:00This appears to violate COPE guidelines. The peopl...This appears to violate COPE guidelines. The people assisting the research should have at least been offered the opportunity to contribute to the paper and if they declined this or did not contribute sufficient to merit authorship should be included in the acknowledgements.<br /><br />This sort of violation isn't uncommon.thomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00392478801981388165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-33040261759876048082017-12-05T23:13:10.836+01:002017-12-05T23:13:10.836+01:00Maybe your second point is subsumed in the hypothe...Maybe your second point is subsumed in the hypotheses? But yeah, the first is an obvious source of confounding. In fact a large number of field studies from this lab have a bunch of analogous problems, if you think about them for a few moments.Nick Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18266307287741345798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-56990649185099847742017-12-05T21:40:19.505+01:002017-12-05T21:40:19.505+01:00I can see a couple of other problems, one with the...I can see a couple of other problems, one with the study design and one with data interpretation.<br /><br />1. The study design doesn't take into account how long the man who approaches the woman has been in the bar. What if she'd been sitting there for 20 minutes when he entered and immediately approached her? Of course it would be nearly impossible to collect this kind of information, because the observers wouldn't know in advance which man would approach the woman, and therefore would have to keep track of all of the men in the bar and when they arrived, or got back from a trip to the bathroom, etc. <br /><br />2. Clothing has a social meaning. A man might think (or subconsciously assume) that a woman wearing high heels is dressing to attract male attention, and therefore that she might be more open to being approached. Janet Laflerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11263007194674042414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-79205453978218730212017-12-05T19:16:52.360+01:002017-12-05T19:16:52.360+01:00We have yet to see an acknowledgements section in ...We have yet to see an acknowledgements section in any sole-authored article by Guéguen (out of 20+ that we have read).Nick Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18266307287741345798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-60380095106315278272017-12-05T14:18:16.010+01:002017-12-05T14:18:16.010+01:00Are there any details in this kind of articles of ...Are there any details in this kind of articles of Guéguen about the backgrounds of these volunteers (students?, for example in the acknowledgements)? <br /><br />See, eg, https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/49241950/Chapter_2.pdf ("We also thank the animal ecology course students from 2012 to 2014 for gathering data.") and https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/47421513/Chapter_3.pdf ("We also thank the animal ecology course students from 2010 to 2012 for helping to gather the data.").Klaas van Dijkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05507228199903986218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7890764972166411105.post-14708877323102090132017-12-05T09:18:56.131+01:002017-12-05T09:18:56.131+01:00Please be quick with the other posts. On his websi...Please be quick with the other posts. On his website, Dr. Gueguen announces that he will soon publish a book, in French, on 'The psychology of sexuality'. So he claims to be an expert on the subject. Maybe just like Freud, he has a rich dream life and personal experience in the use of cocaine, I don't know. Random Factor Yhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12219957970159917823noreply@blogger.com