A quantitative history of RCTs

From a new report by the Behavioural Insights Unit at the British government (with Ben Goldacre and David Torgerson) on using RCTs in policy. 

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are the best way of determining whether a policy is working. They are now used extensively in international development, medicine, and business to identify which policy, drug or sales method is most effective. They are also at the heart of the Behavioural Insights Teamʼs methodology. However, RCTs are not routinely used to test the effectiveness of public policy interventions in the UK. We think that they should be.

(HT: Tim Harford's twitter feed)

So, You Want to Be a Scientist?

Is apparently a real thing. My mum just turned on BBC Radio 4 to a set of listeners calling in with questions that they would like to try and answer with an experiment - does windy weather make kids act up at school - do cows really lie down just before it starts to rain - and a panel discussing the practicalities of possible experimental design.

From the website, here is Brian Cox on what makes a good experiment;

"experiments are the most important part of science"

More Than Good Intentions

More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics is Helping to Solve Global Poverty is the new book by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel, released today. 

I'm about 95% certain that I would be able to tell you I love the book even if I wasn't being paid to promote it. It's like Freakonomics only about global development.

If everyone would just read this book then I would probably be out of a job because you would all be totally convinced of the need for smart evidence-based aid and know all about the fantastic research that IPA is involved with. And I still want you to read it.

So go on, make me unemployed, I dare you.

You can read Chapter 1 here.

New evidence against the Summers hypothesis on gender and innate scientific aptitude

""in those countries where more people held stereotyped beliefs about gender and science, girls tended to under-perform at science relative to boys."

Psychology Research Digest Blog

Winning arguments with science

This is brilliant.

"When you don't have children - as I don't, thus far - one entertaining thing to do with friends who do is as follows. Wait until they're gazing, lovestruck, into the eyes of their newborn baby, tucking their toddler into bed or proudly watching their 21-year-old graduate. Then creep up behind them, slap down a copy of the Journal Of Marriage And Family, vol 65, no 3, and triumphantly declare: "Ha! You may think parenthood has changed your life for the better, but, in fact, the statistical analyses contained herein, along with numerous other studies, demonstrate conclusively that having children makes people, on average, slightly less happy than before!" Then walk away cackling. They may never speak to you again, but that won't matter: you will have won the argument, using Science."