Science | Nick Byrd, Philosopher-Scientist

New paper: “Your Health vs. My Liberty”

How might messaging, reasoning, and philosophical beliefs predict people’s responses to pandemics? Michał Białek and I started wondering about this a few months ago. So we ran some experiments to find out. Our pre-registered hypothesis was wrong, but the other findings were really interesting. Before I get to the findings, consider making some predictions: ask yourself how you expect the following variables to correlate with compliance (or non-compliance) with public health officials’ recommendations such as mask-wearing and sheltering in place:

Flatten the curve graphs: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Reflective reasoning: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Mathematical competence: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Economic conservatism: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Social conservatism: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Libertarianism: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Effective altruism: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Utilitarian sacrificial harm: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Belief in God: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Religiosity: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Compatibism about free will: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Identifying as White: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?
Identifying as a man: Related to compliance? More or less compliance?

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Upon Reflection Podcast, Ep. 3: Causal Network Accounts of Ill-being: Depression & Digital Well-being

Welcome to the third episode of Upon Reflection, a podcast about what we think as well as how and why we think it.

In this podcast, I read my chapter, “Causal Network Accounts of Ill-being: Depression & Digital Well-being” from Ethics of Digital Well-being: A Multidisciplinary Approach. In this chapter, I review how well-being and ill-being can be understood in terms of the causal networks studied by economists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and other scientists. As with all of my writing, the free preprint can be found on my CV at byrdnick.com/cv under “Publications“.

If you want to hear more, you can subscribe wherever you find podcasts. You can also find out more about me and my research on Twitter via @byrd_nick, or on Facebook via @byrdnick. If you end up enjoying the Upon Reflection podcast, then feel free to tell people about it, online, in person, or in your ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:21 — 73.9MB)

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The meaning of ‘statistical significance’ and of p-values

A 2019 paper in the Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science found that most psychology textbooks, instructors, and students misinterpret ‘statistical significance’ and p values. Talk about a headline! More important than the headline, however, are the right interpretations and what we can do to correct widespread misinterpretations. In this post, I explain what the authors’ findings and the three solutions they propose.

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Multi-disciplinary Philosophy PhD Programs

One of my favorite researchers is Chandra Sripada. Sripada is a professor of both philosophy and psychiatry. My research also crosses the humanities-science divide(s). So, I often wonder how to replicate a multi-disciplinary career like Sripada’s. A look at Sripada’s CV reveals a career path involving multiple advanced degrees, internships/residencies, etc. If you are like me, then you (or your partner) might want a more efficient path to a career. In this post, I share advice about how to obtain multi-disciplinary training from philosophy graduate programs. Continue reading Multi-disciplinary Philosophy PhD Programs

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The Institute of Art and Ideas Podcast: Europe’s (Superior) Answer to TED

I first learned about the Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI) a few years ago. I was watching one of the IAI’s debates about the limits of logic. The discussion was long form, but structured. And it included perspectives from multiple areas of expertise. For those reasons alone, the IAI had my attention. After all, you don’t typically get all that from American alternatives like TED or Talks at Google. In this post, I want to introduce the uninitiated to the IAI podcast by highlighting two of my favorite episodes. Continue reading The Institute of Art and Ideas Podcast: Europe’s (Superior) Answer to TED

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Evaluate An Argument With Just ONE Flowchart

I love philosophy and science. I also love flowcharts because they can compress many pages of instruction into a simple chart. And three researchers from George Mason University and the University of Queensland have combined these three loves in a paper about climate change denialism. In their paper, they create a flowchart that shows how to find over a dozen fallacies in over 40 denialist claims! In this post, I’ll explain this argument-checking flowchart. First, we will identify a common denialist claim and then evaluate the argument for it. Continue reading Evaluate An Argument With Just ONE Flowchart

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Science vs. Philosophy …or maybe they are continuous

My Facebook page says that I am a scientist. But I work with both philosophers and scientists. And I do both empirical as well as philosophical research. So am I a philosopher or a scientist? That question assumes that there is a clear boundary between philosophy and science. And that assumption is — at best — controversial. Here are three reasons to think that philosophy is continuous with science. Continue reading Science vs. Philosophy …or maybe they are continuous

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Upon Reflection Podcast, Ep. 3: Causal Network Accounts of Ill-being: Depression & Digital Well-being

Related posts

The meaning of ‘statistical significance’ and of p-values

Multi-disciplinary Philosophy PhD Programs

The Institute of Art and Ideas Podcast: Europe’s (Superior) Answer to TED

Evaluate An Argument With Just ONE Flowchart

Science vs. Philosophy …or maybe they are continuous