But this list is all about posturing. :) I'll flag this email as important and will try to contact them.
On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 2:43 PM, Larry Lyons <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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:290059 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
