Social Sciences
topic on 1 show · 3 statements across 3 episodes
3 statements about Social Sciences, every show
Strogatz: Social sciences are harder than physics because subjects react to measurement
“The laws governing inanimate bodies are just a lot simpler and more easily quantified than the laws governing populations or individual people. So, the task of the social sciences is extremely hard. They get to feed back on the system that's measuring them. It…”
Human decisions are primarily determined by the immediate environment
“One of the big lessons in social science is that we make decisions as the function of the environment that we're in. And if we're in one environment, we make one decision. If we're another one, we make a different decision.”
Grant: Social science causal effects are usually reinforcing feedback loops
“For the most part, when we have causal effects in the social sciences, they tend to be feedback loops. It's not that in real life X is just causing Y. It's more that, you know, X is boosting Y a little bit, and then Y reinforces X, and they, you know, they sta…”