So write the authors and tell them such. You claim to raise flaws in the study. Psych Science does print letters critiquing published studies. It seems there's a win-win situation here. Write a researched and thought out rebuttal and submit it for publication. To some extent anything else would be intellectual posturing -- not worth much at all.
larry >I find the study flawed in a number of ways. I'll start with the Israeli >part and then go to the Palestinian one. > >Tool alert: >I find the whole Israeli part about of the study to be flawed. The >population that they asked was skewed towards what they expected and was >akin to asking someone at a Hamas rally if they supported suicide bombings. >Why didn't they ask someone from Tel Aviv? Because they knew it would not >support their findings. And their findings was NOT about the willingness to >become a suicide bomber, it was how a single persons actions were viewed. >Actions that to this day are controversial. One side believes that Goldstein >prevented a planned suicide attack while the other side thinks he was just a >loon. Either way, his actions were wrong but asking people from only one >side if they supported the actions is not a proper study. > >And the language used is also suspect. Suicide attacks by Israeli Jews not >not just uncommon (to use their term), they are almost non-existent. If you >can think of 5 I would be surprised. In addition, saying that they were >using Jews from both the West Bank and Gaza is not true as there have been >no Jews living in Gaza since 2005. Finally, the current usage of the term >'settlers' has negative connotations due to the current political climate. > >If they were testing willingness to kill for their religion, that would be >one thing. Willingness to die for religion, but not in order to kill others >is something else. Finally, having a positive view of a specific persons >actions is something totally different than the first two. > >That being said, I find the Palestinian part of the study flawed as well. >There was no understanding of suicide bombers or terrorist groups applied. >Frequency of mosque attendance is positively correlated with attraction to >suicide attacks because that's where recruiters hang out. That's where >sermons extolling the virtues of suicide attacks are preached. That's where >people becoming more religious go. >Maybe its the other way around. Maybe they have the attraction to suicide >attacks first and then they started going to mosque more frequently. The >attraction may come from many factors including family. Bottom line is that >the study is flawed by not restricting their variables enough nor even >understanding the variables they're working with. > > > >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:290050 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
