The Ethics and Etiquette of Statistical Discrimination: A Critique of Readers’ Comments. This isn’t an abstract issue of course. Insurance companies engage in statistical discrimination based on group traits, unless there are legal constraints. So, for example, the recent health care legislation eliminated by fiat the differential in premiums between males and females in regards to monthly payments. On the other hand, I assume that no one is clamoring for the elimination of sex differentials in premiums for auto insurance. The two cases are not exactly analogous, but in the differences lay some insights into our innate and socialized senses of fairness in using stereotypes.
The secret history of X and Z – how sex chromosomes from humans and chickens found common ground. Convergent evolution when it comes to chromosome architectures.
We agree it’s WEIRD, but is it WEIRD enough? Neuroanthropology has a massive review of The weirdest people in the world?
Until Cryonics Do Us Part. This piece is a window into the interpersonal dynamics which I think will be familiar, at least at some point, to many readers of this weblog.
Should the Results of Individual Genetic Studies Be Disclosed to Participants?. The effect size of a positive association naturally matters. I wonder if people tend to overreact to the direction of an association and underweight the magnitude & confidence in their evaluations.