Unfounded Assumptions Research Articles

Phenomenological Skepticism Reconsidered: A Husserlian Answer to Dennett's Challenge.

There is a long-standing tradition of questioning the viability and scientificity of first-person methods. Husserlian reflective methodology, in particular, has been challenged on the basis of its perceived inability to meet the standards of objectivity and reliability, leading to what has been called “phenomenological skepticism” (Roy, 2007). In this article, I reassess this line of objection by outlining Daniel C. Dennett’s empirically driven skepticism and reconstructing his methodological arguments against Husserlian phenomenology. His ensuing phenomenological skepticism is divided into strong skepticism and categorical and gradual versions of weak skepticism. Both strands of Dennett’s criticism are then countered by analyzing the key components of Husserl’s method of phenomenological reflection: epoché and transcendental reduction, intentional analysis, eidetic variation, and intersubjective validation. Laying out the basic features of phenomenological reflection serves two purposes. First, it undermines Dennett’s methodological arguments, which are based on the unfounded assumptions that Husserl is committed to introspection, methodological solipsism, the first-person-plural presumption, and the lone-wolf approach. Second, it shows how Husserl’s own methodology can alleviate the more justified empirical worries concerning overinterpretation, underdescription, and disagreement. Finally, I argue that gradual weak skepticism is the only plausible form of phenomenological skepticism and conclude that Husserlian methodology is well-equipped to combat it.

Are the costs worth the benefits? Shared perception and the aggregation of organizational climate ratings

SummaryA definitional component of organizational climate is the focus on employees' shared perceptions of the focal climate domain. To operationalize the notion of sharedness, researchers typically aggregate employees' domain‐specific climate perceptions to a higher level and justify this aggregation using quantitative indices of agreement. In the current paper, I argue that although accounting for sharedness among employees can provide some valuable insight, our overreliance on sharedness obscures some of the very organizational phenomena of interest. I discuss this issue by focusing on four costs of making unfounded assumptions regarding sharedness: (a) Aggregation assumes individual differences are a function of random error; (b) aggregation assumes that social situations are uniform across employees; (c) aggregation assumes that the unit of analysis is clear‐cut; and (d) aggregation assumes the group mean is meaningful. I argue that researchers carefully need to weigh the costs of violating these assumptions against the expected benefits of aggregating employees' climate perceptions, recognizing that sometimes employees' perceptions (i.e., psychological climate) might provide greater insight into phenomena of interest. Although I discuss these costs within the context of organizational climate research, these arguments apply to other research areas where individual perceptions are aggregated (e.g., research on leadership and teams).

How we are misinterpreting physical activity intention \u2013 behavior relations and what to do about it

BackgroundStudies of the physical activity intention-behavior gap, and factors that may moderate the gap (e.g., habit, perceived behavioral control), can inform physical activity promotion efforts. Yet, these studies typically apply linear modeling procedures, and so conclusions rely on linearity and homoscedasticity assumptions, which may not hold.MethodsWe modelled and plotted physical activity intention-behavior associations and the moderation effects of habit using simulated data based on (a) normal distributions with no shared variance, (b) correlated parameters with normal distribution, and (c) realistically correlated and non-normally distributed parameters.ResultsIn the uncorrelated and correlated normal distribution datasets, no violations were unmet, and the moderation effects applied across the entire data range. However, because in the realistic dataset, few people who engaged in physical activity behavior had low intention scores, the intention-behavior association was non-linear, resulting in inflated linear moderation estimations of habit. This finding was replicated when tested with intention-behavior moderation of perceived behavioral control.ConclusionsComparisons of the three scenarios illustrated how an identical correlation coefficient may mask different types of intention-behavior association and moderation effects. These findings highlight the risk of misinterpreting tests of the intention-behavior gap and its moderators for physical activity due to unfounded statistical assumptions. The previously well-documented moderating effects of habit, whereby the impact of intention on behavior weakens as habit strength increases, may be based on statistical byproducts of unmet model assumptions.

From Stages of Development to States of Existence: A Typology of Organizational Survival States

Research on organizational survival has produced disjointed knowledge and unresolved theoretical issues – conceptual clarity and unfounded assumptions – that have impaired theory development. The n...

The effectiveness of water resources management in Pra Basin

Abstract Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been criticized yet it is the dominant approach to water resources management in developing countries. The criticism emanates from the manifold unfounded assumptions made during implementation on issues such as availability of technology and infrastructure, privatization and sustainable financing, human resource capacity, government interference, etc. The Pra Basin has been implementing IWRM since 2011. The basin houses nine out of the 17 artificial reservoirs constructed in Ghana for drinking water supply. It is therefore prudent that the basin's water resources are given extra management care to ensure sustainable water quality and quantity for growth and development. However, much uncertainty still exists about whether the best water management system is being practiced, whether the system is working well, or needs improvement. This study examines the effectiveness of water resources management in the Pra Basin of Ghana. This study used interviews, field observations, and documents such as Pra Basin IWRM plan, the national IWRM plan, etc., to assess the effectiveness of IWRM in the Pra Basin. The result of the study showed that IWRM although appropriate for the basin had implementation gaps. These gaps are potential contributors to deteriorating water quality.

The Role of Female Recruits in the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

The so-called caliphate that was created by the Islamic State attracted female recruits at a level not previously seen by other Salafi-Jihadist groups. This new phenomenon led to the creation of many unfounded assumptions about the role of female jihadists; however, subsequent theoretical research has emerged in recent years that challenges many of these assumptions and provides valuable insight into why this phenomenon may have actually taken place. What follows is an analysis of some of this valuable research as well as an application of these theoretical concepts to the real world through an examination of female jihadists who joined the Islamic State. This study profiles several women who joined the Islamic State and their reasons for joining, and it is aimed at better understanding, through the lens of the theories examined, why these women and others like them willingly chose to travel to the caliphate to become jihadists.

Exploring facilitators and barriers associated with adhering to ART among HIV positive men who have sex with men (MSM) living in Nigeria: A qualitative study

Successful decision-making for environmental management requires evidence of the performance and efficacy of proposed conservation interventions. Projecting the future impacts of prospective conservation policies and programs is challenging due to a range of complex ecological, economic, social and ethical factors, and in particular the need to extrapolate models to novel contexts. Yet many extrapolation techniques currently employed are limited by unfounded assumptions of causality and a reliance on potentially biased inferences drawn from limited data. We show how these restrictions can be overcome by established and emerging techniques from causal inference, scenario analysis, systematic review, expert elicitation, and global sensitivity analysis. These technical advances provide avenues to untangle cause from correlation, evaluate and transfer models between contexts, characterize uncertainty, and address imperfect data. With more rigorous projections of prospective performance of interventions, scientists can deliver policy and program advice that is more scientifically credible.

Unfounded assumptions about people with learning disabilities are costing lives

Unfounded assumptions about people with learning disabilities are costing lives

The Continuing Persistence of Intense Religion in the United States: Rejoinder

In their comment on our article about the persistence of intense religion in the United States, David Voas and Mark Chaves (2018) claimed that 'the intensely religious segment of the American population is shrinking.' In this response, we show that intense religion has persisted from the 1970s to the present, with a temporary uptick during the exceptional Reagan years. Voas and Chaves concluded otherwise because their analytical strategy was not sufficiently sensitive to nonlinear patterns. In addition to demonstrating the continuing persistence of intense religion, we also discuss criteria for measuring intense religion over time and the importance of avoiding unfounded assumptions in age–period–cohort analysis. We conclude that aspects of the classic secularization thesis championed by Voas, Chaves, and others are not supported by the data, and we suggest that scholars should look for better ways of thinking about religious change.

Shakespeare’s Double Plays: Dramatic Economy on the Early Modern Stage by Brett Gamboa

Reviewed by: Shakespeare’s Double Plays: Dramatic Economy on the Early Modern Stage by Brett Gamboa Ann Thompson SHAKESPEARE’S DOUBLE PLAYS: DRAMATIC ECONOMY ON THE EARLY MODERN STAGE. By Brett Gamboa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018; pp. 300. Might the actor who plays Juliet’s Nurse double as Tybalt, Angelo double as Claudio, Desdemona as Bianca, Leontes as Autolycus, and Cymbeline’s Queen as Iachimo? Might many of Shakespeare’s heroines have been played by young men, not boys, and might doubling in his company have been much more extensive, imaginative, and meaningful than we have been led to believe? At a time when many of our modern theatre companies are experimenting with gender-blind and race-blind casting, Brett Gamboa argues that audiences at the Globe and the Blackfriars enjoyed much more radical practices than we usually see today. As he writes, “[b]iases towards verisimilitude have been projected onto Shakespeare’s company, leading to widely held but largely unfounded assumptions: that sharers wouldn’t double in minor roles; that the company would require sufficient time for actors to change [End Page 570] clothes; that adult males never played female roles; that actors would not double multiple roles within the same scene” (219). Gamboa explores these “widely held but largely unfounded assumptions” through a series of chapters on topics such as “Versatility and Verisimilitude on Sixteenth-Century Stages,” “Dramaturgical Directives and Shakespeare’s Cast Size,” and “‘What, are they children?’: Reconsidering Shakespeare’s ‘Boy’ Actors.” He offers detailed discussion of the doubling possibilities in The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and Othello; an appendix provides thirty-two “hypothetical casting charts” for all the plays that Shakespeare wrote for the Chamberlain’s/King’s Men from 1594 to 1610. His intention is not only to challenge received ideas about casting, but also to argue that a different approach would offer both actors and audiences more pleasure and a greater depth of engagement with the plays. He is not offering new historical evidence, but rereading the evidence we already have, mainly through a very thorough and careful analysis of Shakespeare’s own dramaturgical practice. Gamboa is not prescriptive about modern practices: he writes toward the end of his book that “[w]hen it comes to theatre productions, my hope is less to define how a play should be cast, than to show the value of doubling, and to invite directors to be less random in the assignation of roles” (235). He does not in fact spend very much time discussing modern practices; his emphasis is more on what might have happened in Shakespeare’s own time. Much of the book is devoted to a thorough re-examination of the kinds of evidence that previous scholars have used. Gamboa demonstrates how flimsy some of it is and how dangerous it might be to rely upon documents from the 1620s or later to deduce earlier practices. For example, the extant “plots” from the Caroline period show that the companies used more actors than was strictly necessary, compared to the efficiency of the Tudor patterns that Shakespeare inherited or those that can be derived from his own dramatic structures. His most striking challenge is perhaps to the assumption that “boy actors” would have been prepubescent teenagers who played exclusively female roles. Instead, he argues convincingly that they were much more likely to have been young men, capable of acting male parts as well, since Shakespeare would have needed to make the best use of a comparatively small company. He points out that “[w]hatever Shakespeare’s intent or practice, his play[s] carefully avoid the need for 13 speakers to share the stage at all times. . . . When a scene with 12 speakers wants one more, something happens to excuse someone” (148). Sometimes the absence is a conspicuous one, for example that of Lady Montague at the end of Romeo and Juliet or of Maria at the end of Twelfth Night. The explanation might be that the actor is onstage, but in a different role. The consistency of the twelve-speaker rule across thirty-two plays can hardly be a coincidence; Shakespeare must have written with...

Projecting the performance of conservation interventions

Successful decision-making for environmental management requires evidence of the performance and efficacy of proposed conservation interventions. Projecting the future impacts of prospective conservation policies and programs is challenging due to a range of complex ecological, economic, social and ethical factors, and in particular the need to extrapolate models to novel contexts. Yet many extrapolation techniques currently employed are limited by unfounded assumptions of causality and a reliance on potentially biased inferences drawn from limited data. We show how these restrictions can be overcome by established and emerging techniques from causal inference, scenario analysis, systematic review, expert elicitation, and global sensitivity analysis. These technical advances provide avenues to untangle cause from correlation, evaluate and transfer models between contexts, characterize uncertainty, and address imperfect data. With more rigorous projections of prospective performance of interventions, scientists can deliver policy and program advice that is more scientifically credible.

Editorial: The politics of evidence, data and research in anti-trafficking work

Since the mid-2000s, critical commentators have raised concerns about both the paucity of evidence on important aspects of human trafficking, and the difficulty of obtaining meaningful data. Policy formations, advocacy campaigns, concrete interventions, and popular understandings of human trafficking have all had accusations of wild claims and unfounded assumptions levelled at them. Guesstimates prevail and take on a life of their own in such a context. Calls for more robust evidence to prove or disprove claims about the nature, extent and location of human trafficking, the characteristics of trafficked persons, and the continued investment in particular types of responses have abounded. This has occurred in light of the growing potential for unsubstantiated claims to fulfil the place of rigorous evidence to inform anti-trafficking work.

Bisection method for accurate modeling and simulation of fouling in hollow fiber membrane system

Accurate description and modeling of fouling on hollow fibers imposes a serious challenge to more effective fouling mitigation and performance optimization of the membrane system. Although the governing equations for membrane fouling can be constructed based on the known theories from membrane filtration and fluid dynamics, they are unsolvable analytically due to the complex spatially and temporally varying nature of fouling on hollow fibers. The current available numerical solutions for the governing equations are either unreliable or inconvenient to use because of the uses of unfounded assumptions or cumbersome calculation methods. This work presented for the first time a rigorous numerical procedure to solve the governing equations for fouling development on hollow fibers. A critical step to achieve the goal is the use of bisection method to determine the transmembrane pressure at the dead end of the fibers. With this procedure, fouling behavior in the hollow fiber membrane system under a given condition can be simulated within a second. The model simulations were well calibrated and verified with the published experimental data from literature. Also presented in the paper were simulations for performances of the hollow fiber membrane system under various operation conditions. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

How Sex Selection Undermines Reproductive Autonomy.

Non-medical sex selection is premised on the notion that the sexes are not interchangeable. Studies of individuals who undergo sex selection for non-medical reasons, or who have a preference for a son or daughter, show that they assume their child will conform to the stereotypical roles and norms associated with their sex. However, the evidence currently available has not succeeded in showing that the gender traits and inclinations sought are caused by a "male brain" or a "female brain". Therefore, as far as we know, there is no biological reason why parents cannot have the kind of parenting experience they seek with a child of any sex. Yet gender essentialism, a set of unfounded assumptions about the sexes which pervade society and underpin sexism, prevents parents from realising this freedom. In other words, unfounded assumptions about gender constrain not only a child's autonomy, but also the parent's. To date, reproductive autonomy in relation to sex selection has predominantly been regarded merely as the freedom to choose the sex of one's child. This paper points to at least two interpretations of reproductive autonomy and argues that sex selection, by being premised on gender essentialism and/or the social pressure on parents to ensure their children conform to gender norms, undermines reproductive autonomy on both accounts.

Does ownership matter for service delivery value? an examination of citizens’ service satisfaction

ABSTRACTGovernments across the world outsource service delivery to external agents, but does ownership matter for service delivery value? Though theory points to clear ownership differences on effectiveness, there remains limited empirical evidence of the impact of ownership on citizens’ satisfaction. Focusing on local authorities in England, we draw on secondary data (2007 and 2009) to examine if ownership type matters. The findings indicate that ownership – public, non-profit, private – confers no direct benefits for citizens’ satisfaction suggesting that the outsourcing decision should not rely on unfounded assumptions about performance differentials between ownership types. The implications for public management are explored.

Overlapping Electronic States with Nearly Parallel Transition Dipole Moments in Reduced Anionic Flavin Can Distort Photobiological Dynamics.

Chromophoric biomolecules are exploited as reporters of a diverse set of phenomena, acting as internal distance monitors, environment and redox sensors, and endogenous imaging probes. The extent to which they can be exploited is dependent on an accurate knowledge of their fundamental electronic properties. Arguably of greatest importance is a precise knowledge of the direction(s) of the absorption transition dipole moment(s) (TDMs) in the molecular frame of reference. Such is the case for flavins, fluorescent redox cofactors utilized for ground- and excited-state redox and photochemical processes. The directions of the TDMs in oxidized and semiquinone flavins were characterized decades ago, and the details of charge redistribution in these forms have also been studied by Stark spectroscopy. The electronic structure of the fully reduced hydroquinone anionic state, FlH-, however, has been the subject of unfounded assumptions and estimates about the number and direction of TDMs in FlH-, as well the electronic structure changes that occur upon light absorption. Here we have used Stark spectroscopy to measure the magnitude and direction of charge redistribution in FlH- upon optical excitation. These data were analyzed using TD-DFT calculations. The results show unequivocally that not one but two nearly orientation-degenerate electronic transitions are required to explain the 340-500 nm absorption spectral range, demolishing the commonly held assumption of a single transition. The difference dipole moments for these states show that electron density shifts toward the xylene ring for both transitions. These measurements force a reappraisal of previous studies that have used erroneous assumptions and unsubstantiated estimates of these quantities. The results put future optical studies of reduced flavins/flavoproteins on a firm photophysical footing.

Evidence‐Based Intellectual Property Policymaking: An Integrated Review of Methods and Conclusions

Governments have long been interested in making intellectual property (IP) policy based on sound evidence. There is a large body of literature addressing the economic impacts of IP, but little of it is accessible to policy makers. This article aims to improve understanding of how IP contributes to the economic performance of a country's innovative sectors. A detailed literature review and meta‐analysis identifies existing methodologies and analytical frameworks. The article organizes the literature and conclusions into four major archetypes, and explains the advantages/disadvantages of each approach. First, data for advocacy is used primarily by special‐interest lobby groups. This literature is accessible to policy makers, but rarely transparent, verified or peer reviewed. Second, valuations of aggregate economic contributions of IP‐related industries are influential worldwide. This literature usefully allows us to compare data internationally, but makes unfounded or misleading assumptions about the importance of IP to a particular industry. Third, innovation indices and rankings are increasingly used to assess comparative progress over time. This literature reports on a broad‐base of IP and innovative activity, but risks turning into a statistical horse race. Fourth, the literature on scholarly theoretical and empirical research and modelling is extensive. This literature often relies on sound evidence, but tends to use the available information—patent data—without explaining the context in which firms may or may not choose to use formal IPRs. It is also rarely accessible to policy makers in the format or timelines required. None of these frameworks alone are fully capable of providing complete, reliable information about the economic importance of intellectual property in any one particular country. An approach that positions and integrates various frameworks, methods and data sources is, therefore, appropriate. The key challenge for the future is to connect empirical data and micro‐economic analyses about firms’ strategic responses to IP policy changes with statistics and macro‐economic insights on overall economic performance or social welfare.

Fast & Furious: The Misregulation of Driverless Cars

The United States is on the cusp of a revolution in transportation. The sale and widespread use of both semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles, also known as “driverless cars,” are both imminent and likely to significantly change the way in which citizens commute, interact, and travel. While there is substantial concern amongst state lawmakers and the general public about the overall safety and desirability of these vehicles, experts predict that fully autonomous cars will dramatically improve highway safety, reduce traffic, increase productivity, and enhance the independence of individuals who are unable to obtain licenses. Lawmakers, however, motivated by irrational fears and unfounded assumptions that human drivers are far superior to automated technologies, have begun passing driverless car laws that create significant liability issues while doing very little to enhance road safety. These laws ignore the differences between semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles, chill technological advancement, impose unwarranted liability on human drivers in many circumstances, and may actually incentivize human driver behavior that is less safe than letting vehicles drive autonomously. Both “operator” and override provisions – two very common types of driverless car laws – make these mistakes. These laws should be revised significantly or struck down and replaced with laws and regulations that are both carefully tailored to particular levels of autonomous technologies and informed by the growing amount of empirical research suggesting that fully autonomous vehicles are far safer than those controlled by human drivers.

Pathological counterinsurgency: the failure of imposing legitimacy in El Salvador, Afghanistan, and Iraq

Many voices in the US policy community have suggested that El Salvador provided a model for US counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, based on the unsound contention that elections increased government legitimacy and effectiveness. The same flawed assessments were present in counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan – unfounded assumptions that elections would increase legitimacy and improve institutional performance and human rights records lead to inaccurate analysis and bad strategy. Indeed, the US experience calls into question the ability of even a great power to impose legitimacy on a partner in order to wage counterinsurgency. Assuming that elections will advance such legitimacy is a dangerous pathology.

Epidemiology Without Biology: False Paradigms, Unfounded Assumptions, and Specious Statistics in Radiation Science (with Commentaries by Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake and Christopher Busby and a Reply by the Authors).

Radiation science is dominated by a paradigm based on an assumption without empirical foundation. Known as the linear no-threshold (LNT) hypothesis, it holds that all ionizing radiation is harmful no matter how low the dose or dose rate. Epidemiological studies that claim to confirm LNT either neglect experimental and/or observational discoveries at the cellular, tissue, and organismal levels, or mention them only to distort or dismiss them. The appearance of validity in these studies rests on circular reasoning, cherry picking, faulty experimental design, and/or misleading inferences from weak statistical evidence. In contrast, studies based on biological discoveries demonstrate the reality of hormesis: the stimulation of biological responses that defend the organism against damage from environmental agents. Normal metabolic processes are far more damaging than all but the most extreme exposures to radiation. However, evolution has provided all extant plants and animals with defenses that repair such damage or remove the damaged cells, conferring on the organism even greater ability to defend against subsequent damage. Editors of medical journals now admit that perhaps half of the scientific literature may be untrue. Radiation science falls into that category. Belief in LNT informs the practice of radiology, radiation regulatory policies, and popular culture through the media. The result is mass radiophobia and harmful outcomes, including forced relocations of populations near nuclear power plant accidents, reluctance to avail oneself of needed medical imaging studies, and aversion to nuclear energy—all unwarranted and all harmful to millions of people.