How We Approach Our Research
We use the Scientific Method, but we are also hesitant to use a lot of unnecessary math that only serves to make our work accessible to a handful of people
Social scientists — such as economists and sociologists — are often ridiculed because our fields are not exact (“real”) sciences; for example, economists cannot make perfect predictions, such as when the next recession will occur or how much gasoline will cost next summer. Similarly, political scientists cannot predict with certainty which party will win the next federal election, or if the winner will have a majority. This is indeed unfortunate, and one reason why we use “weasel words” to avoid implying certainty (e.g., “the data suggest…”, “it appears that…”, “it is likely true that…”).
Nonetheless, most social scientists approach our fields carefully and objectively by following the Scientific Method, which involves:
Using abstract models to help explain how a complex, real world operates, thus requiring reasonable simplifying assumptions.
Developing theories, and then collecting and analyzing data to evaluate these theories — which might involve using statistical techniques.
Furthermore, the Scientific Method requires us to collect data to provide reasonably accurate answers to the questions we are asking, despite being imprecise. These data must be handled with care after they are collected, in terms of the statistical methods used to analyze them. The data must also be carefully collected from their sources before any statistical analyses are conducted. Otherwise, no amount of statistical “tricks” will lead to reasonable answers to our questions. Thus, many social scientists believe strongly the completion of the long-form census must be legally required of those who receive it.
Given the above arguments, it is our purpose today to explain how we approach our own research using the Scientific Method. You might have noticed people claiming they are doing their own research on an issue, when they might actually be just looking for someone — anyone — who says what they want to hear, regardless of whether those views are way out on the fringes. While the Scientific Method can be delineated in various ways, the point of this post is to demonstrate the process is a rigorous one, and anyone who claims to be researching an issue should be following this method in one way or another.
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